'It's been a long time since a novel has destroyed me like this . . . One of the boldest writers alive today.' Max Porter
'A novel of exquisite discomfort and delicious poetry . . . Made me laugh and gasp . . . I'm in awe.' Brandon Taylor
'Rejuvenating, glorious, brilliant. A book about obsession with prose that obsessed me from the first line.' Daisy Johnson
In the tempestuous summer of 2005, a local veterinarian becomes enraptured by a 14-year-old farmer's daughter - his 'favourite' - as he tends her father's cows. This deeply troubled soul is our narrator: a man who believes he offers the object of his love a tantalizing path out of the constrictions of her conservative rural life, a chance to escape to a world of fantasy. But the obsessive reliance he cultivates builds into a terrifying trap, with a crime and confession at the heart of it that threatens to rip their small community apart.
