From the Orange Prize-winning author of Property, the story of a woman on the run from sexual obsession
‘An impressive writer…I admire her straightforward style and the intelligence and strength of her heroine’ Ann Tyler
Helene is a woman constantly on the run. A social worker, she spends her days trying to sort out other people’s lives. But her need for professional detachment carries through to her private life where she is pursued by a series of needy men – one simply mad and obsessive, another a drug addict whose habit is all-consuming, the third the partner of her best friend who has a cruel, selfish streak. People see in her the sort of person in whom they can confide their secrets and desires but Helene is determined never to give up the option to walk away.
‘An impressive writer…I admire her straightforward style and the intelligence and strength of her heroine’ Ann Tyler
Helene is a woman constantly on the run. A social worker, she spends her days trying to sort out other people’s lives. But her need for professional detachment carries through to her private life where she is pursued by a series of needy men – one simply mad and obsessive, another a drug addict whose habit is all-consuming, the third the partner of her best friend who has a cruel, selfish streak. People see in her the sort of person in whom they can confide their secrets and desires but Helene is determined never to give up the option to walk away.
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Reviews
Valerie Martin is contemporary and extraordinary ... SET IN MOTION is admirably written in clean, unenamelled prose ... this is definitely art
SET IN MOTION is a striking first novel, remarkable for its honesty ... One of the best things about it is that her main character works, and that her work illumines her and the novel
An impressive writer...I admire her straightforward style and the intelligence and strength of her heroine
A rare accomplishment ... a remarkable novel ... rich in perceptive prose ... rich in probing character study