{"title":"Books by Sophie Mackintosh","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780241986691","title":"Blue Ticket","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the author longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction and selected as one of the Best Young British Novelists of the Decade:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn unsettling and addictive feminist fable for fans of \u003ci\u003eI Who Have Never Known Men\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHot Milk, Unsettled Ground \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eKlara and the Sun \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRecommended by \u003ci\u003eStylist\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eEsquire, Red, Daily Mail, Oprah Magazine, LitHub, \u003c\/i\u003eand Belletrist Book Club\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes' Deborah Levy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Definitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh' \u003ci\u003eStylist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the lottery station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. Or, to put it another way, you have no choice. And once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut what if the life you're given is the wrong one?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlue Ticket\u003c\/i\u003e is a devastating enquiry into free will and the fraught space of motherhood. Bold and chilling, it pushes beneath the skin of female identity and patriarchal violence, to the point where human longing meets our animal bodies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Dreamlike, tense, compelling, [with] a pitch-perfect ending' \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Thoughtful and haunting' \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure' \u003ci\u003eLitHub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003ci\u003eBlue Ticket\u003c\/i\u003e will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams' \u003ci\u003eRed\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201642365106,"sku":"9780241986691","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241986691_5967c1ae-adda-431e-a21c-60f68769b07b.jpg?v=1786012171"},{"product_id":"9780241983010","title":"The Water Cure","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBRITISH VOGUE\u003c\/i\u003e 'STAR OF THE FUTURE'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eINDEPENDENT\u003c\/i\u003e BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A gripping, sinister fable' Margaret Atwood\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An extraordinary debut - otherworldly, luminous, precise' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Bold, inventive, haunting . . . With shades of Margaret Atwood and Eimear McBride, you'll be bowled over by it' \u003ci\u003eStylist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA hypnotic coming-of-age story for fans of \u003ci\u003eThe Power\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Vegetarian, I Who Have Never Known Men\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e The Girls\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrace, Lia and Sky live in an abandoned hotel, on a sun-bleached island, beside a poisoned sea. Their parents raised them there to keep them safe, to make them good. The world beyond the water is contaminated and men are the contamination. But one day three strangers wash ashore - men who stare at the sisters hungrily, helplessly. Men who bring trouble.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'A feminist fable set by the sea, a female \u003ci\u003eLord of the Flies\u003c\/i\u003e. It felt like a book I'd been waiting to read for a long time' Emma Jane Unsworth\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Visceral, hypnotic, with one of my favourite endings I've read in a long while' \u003ci\u003eThe Pool\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An unsettling dark fantasy... [It] lingers long after the final page' \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206044287154,"sku":"9780241983010","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241983010_7aa5d824-7a39-45e8-97be-586dc778fbc6.jpg?v=1786012910"},{"product_id":"at-the-pond-swimming-at-the-hampstead-ladies-pond","title":"At the Pond","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTucked away along a shady path towards the north-east edge of Hampstead Heath is a sign: Women Only. This is the Kenwood Ladies’ Bathing Pond.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFloating in the Pond’s silky waters, hidden by a canopy of trees, it’s easy to forget that you are in the middle of London. On a hot day, thousands of swimmers from eight to eighty-plus can be found waiting to take a dip before sunbathing in the adjoining meadow. As summer turns to autumn and then winter, the Pond is still visited by a large number of hardy regulars in high-vis hats, many of whom have been swimming here for decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn these essays we see the Pond from the perspectives of writers who have swum there. Esther Freud describes the life-affirming sensation of swimming through the seasons; Lou Stoppard pays tribute to the winter swimmers who break the ice; Margaret Drabble reflects on the golden Hampstead days of her youth; Sharlene Teo visits for the first time; and Nell Frizzell shares the view from her yellow lifeguard’s canoe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCombining personal reminiscence with reflections on the history of the place over the years and through the changing seasons,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAt the Pond\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecaptures fourteen contemporary writers’ impressions of this unique place.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55185772216693,"sku":"9781911547396","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911547396_13b14fd1-b43f-47a2-a737-c6a24dc31d31.jpg?v=1786029122"},{"product_id":"9780241993903","title":"Cursed Bread","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGRANTA\u003c\/i\u003e BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS\u003cbr\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2023\u003cbr\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Booker Prize-nominated author of \u003ci\u003eThe Water Cure\u003c\/i\u003e comes a chilling new feminist fable based on the true story of an unsolved mystery . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A shimmering fever-dream of a novel' \u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpring, 1951. Four people meet in a small French town: the baker and his wife; the ambassador and his wife. Two belong to the town, two are outsiders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome time later, strange things start happening. Horses drop dead in the fields. Children grow wild and unbiddable. Ghosts are sighted after dark. Someone is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse – but who is the predator and who their prey?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAudacious and mesmerizing, \u003ci\u003eCursed Bread\u003c\/i\u003e is a darkly erotic mystery about a town gripped by madness, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A dreamy sapphic romp\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Gauzy [and] gripping, a quietly rich maturation of Mackintosh's skill\u003ci\u003e' Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator \u003c\/i\u003eBook of the Year 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56230380437877,"sku":"9780241993903","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241993903_424f01a8-0404-4029-ac66-d339a56ce886.jpg?v=1786012307"},{"product_id":"9780241776308","title":"Permanence","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the most anticipated books of 2026 as chosen by: Vogue, Stylist, Forbes, Oprah Daily and LitHub\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Like Severance for relationships' Oprah Daily\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Sophie Mackintosh turns the novel of adultery inside out’ Lauren Elkin\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘It will stay with me for a long time’ Monica HeiseyThis is the story of an affair. Clara and Francis are in love, but nobody knows it. For months they have been slipping away from their respective lives, sharing stolen afternoons in hotel rooms, their time together painfully sweet and all too short. Until one day they wake up in a bedroom neither of them recognises with no memory of how they got there. They find themselves in a strange and unfamiliar city: a place where adulterers can live openly as couples, without fear of consequence, putting the theory of their love into practice. Here the sky is painted over the old town square in changeless, cloudless blue. Ripe fruits wait on the table each morning and the sunset comes down in a blaze of pink each night. And contact with the real world is impossible. As long as Clara and Francis are here, they only have each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow do you know when you’ve found true love? How much would you sacrifice to keep hold of it? 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