INTERNATIONAL BOOKS
Fiction
The Body Lies
Jo Baker (Penguin Random House, $35)
esperate to feel safe after a violent assault, a young author leaves London to teach at a university in the country. But as she navigates through student dramas and a demanding job, she realises her sense of safety is an illusion. A feeling of constant, creeping unease escalates when one of her students’ stories becomes uncomfortably personal and slyly threatening. She knows, and we know, that danger is coming for her – just not when or how. explores how women are forced to operate in the world, dealing with sexual politics, relationships, the weight of their own and others’ expectations, with one eye constantly on their safety. This is a slow burn that works on so many different levels; it’s thought-provoking and sometimes confronting as
