Nightshift is a story of obsession set in London's liminal world of nightshift workers.
When twenty-three-year-old Meggie meets distant and enigmatic Sabine, she recognizes in her the person she would like to be. Giving up her daytime existence, her reliable boyfriend, and the trappings of a normal life in favour of working the same nightshifts as Sabine could be the perfect escape for Meggie. She finds a liberating sense of freedom in indulging her growing preoccupation with Sabine and plunges herself into another existence, gradually immersing herself in the transient and uncertain world of the nightshift worker.
Dark, sexy, frightening, Nightshift explores ambivalent female friendship, sexual attraction and lives that defy easy categorization. London's stark urban reality is rendered other-worldly and strange as Meggie's sleep deprivation, drinking and fixation with Sabine gain a momentum all of their own. Can Meggie really lose herself in her trying to become someone else?
A novel of obsession and desire, Kiare Ladner's Nightshift is a beautiful and moving debut which asks profound questions about who we are and if we can truly escape ourselves.
As a child, Kiare Ladner wanted to live on a farm, run an orphanage and be on stage. As an adult, she found herself working for academics, with prisoners and on nightshifts. Her short stories have been published in anthologies, broadcast on the radio and shortlisted in competitions, including the BBC National Short Story Award 2018. Nightshift is her first novel.
Title: Nightshift
Author: Ladner, Kiare
ISBN: 9781529010381
Binding:
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication Date: 2021-02-18
Number of Pages: 256
Weight: 0.3681 kg
Exciting and provocative . . . Daring and dark, it explores themes of nihilism, escape, and desire, with classic noir echoes of Patricia Highsmith. Is it possible to become someone else? -- Julianne Pachico, author of The Anthill
A firecracker of a book - toxic, sexy, pacy and packed with humour. -- Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory
A brilliantly compulsive, unnerving read. A meditation on obsessive female friendship that sinks into the bone. -- Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch
A darkly compulsive debut, charged with the vertigo of sleeplessness, intoxication and obsessive intimacy -- Naomi Booth, author of Exit Management
A tense and affecting tale of awakening * Publishers Weekly *
Ladner's gorgeous shadowy writing creates a daunting but exhilarating world that's difficult to leave. -- The Skinny
Ladner's gritty debut looks at the fringes of human functionality and underworld London, ultimately asking if we can escape ourselves by becoming someone else. -- The Face