Magpie

By Elizabeth Day

'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 UK
• Release date: Sep 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9780008374969

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

[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.

[stressedrach · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just WOW! I really didn’t expect that twist!
Magpie starts off Marisa and Jake moving in together, although they haven’t been together long. Then they decide to take in a lodger who is Kate. This is when things start becoming a little weird between Marisa and Kate, especially with a baby on the way.
Huge credit goes to Elizabeth Day, she managed to write this in such a way that when the twist happened BOOM! My mind exploded. It was clever and well thought out and so unexpected, it was surreal.
I’d definitely recommend it.