Magpie

Written by Elizabeth Day

Narrated by Tanya Reynolds

'Terrifyingly BRILLIANT’
MARIAN KEYES, AUTHOR OF GROWN UPS

'A book that needed to exist in the world. It is the book that was missing’
LISA TADDEO, AUTHOR OF THREE WOMEN AND ANIMAL

‘Magnificent: I read it one sitting’
KATE MOSSE, AUTHOR OF THE CITY OF TEARS

Sometimes Marisa gets the fanciful notion that Kate has visited the house before. She makes herself at home without any self-consciousness. She puts her toothbrush right there in the master bathroom, on the shelf next to theirs.

In Jake, Marisa has found everything she’s ever wanted. Then their new lodger Kate arrives.

Something about Kate isn’t right. Is it the way she looks at Marisa’s boyfriend? Sits too close on the sofa? Constantly asks about the baby they are trying for? Or is it all just in Marisa’s head?

After all, that’s what her Jake keeps telling her. And she trusts him – doesn’t she?

But Marisa knows something is wrong. That the woman sleeping in their house will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Marisa just doesn’t know why.

How far will she go to find the answer – and how much is she willing to lose?

‘A pacy, stylish thriller in which suspense is accompanied by fist-pumping feminism and, perhaps toughest of all, hope.’
THE OBSERVER

‘Pulse-quickening-tale’
STYLIST

‘Scintillating’
THE SUNDAY TIMES, THRILLER OF THE MONTH

‘A compassionately crafted psychological drama’
HARPERS BAZAAR

‘I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’
PRIMA MAGAZINE

‘A genius twist that left me reeling’
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

‘Be prepared for a sleight-of-hand-twist that will leave you gasping’
RED MAGAZINE

‘Utterly engrossing’
REFINERY 29

‘Sharp and sinister’
MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘Impossible to put down’
DAILY MAIL

‘A rich plot that also delves into meaty topics’
GRAZIA

Sunday Times bestseller 06/09/2021

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Sep 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9780008374976

Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day is an award-winning author and broadcaster based in the UK. Her chart-topping podcast, How to Fail, is a celebration of the things that haven’t gone right. Guests have included Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Gloria Steinem, Andrew Scott, Lily Allen, Mabel, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Malcolm Gladwell. It won the Rising Star Award at the 2019 British Podcast Awards. Elizabeth is the author of the novel The Party, which was published in the US in 2017.

Reviews for Magpie

[whymanen · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A slow book that focuses on drawn out description rather than advancing the story. Not horrible but unless you are really into both surrogate motherhood and psychological everyday "mystery" I would stay away.

[Sofia Chacon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an incredible story! Amazing turn ! I finished it in 3 days! Sooo good! Strongly recommended !

[Marina · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very clever book, deftly written. I did love the fact that there weren't "villains" but instead shades of grey. Expertly straddles genres of thriller, mystery and literature.

[mm_jones · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Elizabeth Day's latest, Magpie, is a roller coaster of a read. Unreliable narrators are not a style I particularly enjoy, but it really works in this novel of infertility and surrogacy and overbearing mother-in-law. The characters are well-written. While the story starts off slowly, it really picks up the pace in part two. I was pleasantly surprised with the ending.

[lorikboyd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Different story line than I expected. Solid writing drew me in, twisted characters kept me reading. So much I could say, but it would give too much away. I started feeling one way about some of the characters, then there was a switch. All I can say is that the ‘Mother’ calling her 40 year old son by a nickname throughout the book was cringeworthy, but added to the story. Did I want to smack all the characters at one point or another, absolutely! Ending was tied up a little too neatly for me. Would recommend as a summer read..on the deck or poolside with your favorite beverage, but you just may end up reading not the evening. Thanks to Ms. Day, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel opens with a section narrated by Marisa, explaining her relationship with Jake. We soon learn that she had moved in with him not long before, is madly in love with him, and is now expecting their first baby. Marisa is self-employed, and writes and illustrates customised story books commissioned by parents to feature stylised pictures of their children. This requires her to work from home while Jake leaves each day to do his work in a city bank. Some of his deals go awry, as a consequence of which, they decide that they need to take in a lodger. The advent of Kate into the household seems to change their lives completely …or does it?I don’t want to say much more abut the plot of the book for fear of inadvertently casting spoilers. Suffice to say that there are several sinuous twists.I have read very mixed reviews of the book. A lot seem to feel that it requires too great a suspension of disbelief. I understand that viewpoint, but I felt that [[Elizabeth Day]]’s powers of characterisation and her ability to convey dialogue were sufficiently strong to keep me reading. I had read and enjoyed a couple of her previous novels, and found [Paradise City] especially effective. This is not quite in that league, but I did find it gripping, and was drawn into it right from the start.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was OK, but not great. None of the characters really came alive for me and they all acted inconsistently. There was a big twist and then another surprise towards the end, but instead of making me think "oh, I see!" and causing me to re-evaluate everything I had read, the second one in particular just made me think that the characterization made no sense. The first twist led to a fair amount of repetition/re-interpretation of the same events, which slowed things down. I never had any idea what Jake was thinking, which I suppose was necessary for the plot, but made him seem like a cardboard cut-out onto which the women in his life projected a personality. I felt Marisa was abandoned more or less by the author at the end, and the ending was anti-climactic. SPOILERHow on earth did Marisa pass the screening process for the surrogacy agency?