The Book of Guilt
Author(s): Catherine Chidgey
Fiction | Kete Winter Reading Guide | This week's Official Nielsen Indie Top 10
In a sinisterly skewed version of England in 1979, thirteen-year-old triplets Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme.
Each day the boys must take medicine to protect themselves from a mysterious illness to which many of their friends have succumbed. Children who survive are allowed to move to the Big House in Margate, a destination of mythical proportions, desired by every Sycamore child.
Meanwhile, in Exeter, Nancy lives a secluded life with her parents, who never let her leave the house. As the government looks to shut down the Sycamore homes and place their residents into the community, the triplets’ lives begin to intersect with Nancy’s, culminating in revelations that will rock the children to the core.
Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a spellbinding novel from one of our greatest storytellers: a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.
Bookseller Review
The latest novel by Catherine Chidgey is a deliciously chilling story set in an alternate England. In this world WWII ended early in 1943 with the death of Hitler and the subsequent peace allowed the UK to access research carried out in the Nazi death camps.
In 1979 three identical teenaged boys are living in a rundown old house, the final subjects of a secretive project that is being closed down, watched over by three Mothers. They receive treatment for a medical condition they don't understand, the symptoms of which keep changing. Kept isolated for all their lives, they are finally being allowed access to the nearby village, the inhabitants of which seem to both fear and hate them.
The England of 1979 is beautifully evoked through an accretion of perfect details. Secrets are gradually revealed, ratcheting up the tension as the truth behind the mysterious project is revealed. The frequent mentions of the children's TV show Jim'll Fix It are a subtle hint that the darkest evil can live in plain sight and be ignored by otherwise moral and upright citizens.
Catherine Chidgey is one of New Zealand's very best authors, a wonderfully precise and thoughtful writer, and The Book of Guilt is probably her finest work since the marvellous Remote Sympathy, which covered some similar themes. A book to savour, this will resonate long after the final page.
– Review by Phil at Timaru Booksellers
General Information
- :
- : Te Herenga Waka University Press
- : Te Herenga Waka University Press
- : 08 May 2025
- : books
Other Specifications
- : Catherine Chidgey
More About The Product
Praise for Catherine Chidgey:
‘Chidgey again displays her prodigious talent for psychological suspense and minutely evoking past eras . . . Faultless.’ —The Guardian
‘Chidgey is a find.’ —Times Literary Supplement
‘A lingering, haunting book, which belongs on the shelf with We Have Always Lived in the Castle or My Brilliant Friend – a landmark in the small but potent canon of contemporary novels about unusual girls reckoning with themselves and the world around them.’ —The New York Times
Catherine Chidgey is the author of In a Fishbone Church (1998), Golden Deeds (2000), The Transformation (2003), The Wish Child (2016), the 'found novel' The Beat of the Pendulum (2017), Remote Sympathy (2020), The Axeman’s Carnival (2022) and Pet (2023). Her novels have been published to international acclaim and have been shortlisted and won numerous prizes including, the Women’s Prize and, twice, the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. She lives in Ngāruawāhia and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato.
