Other People’s Fun

‘I look. I can’t stop looking. That’s the deal, isn’t it? We all know that’s how it works. If someone wants to be seen – and oh, how they want to be seen – then someone has to watch.’

Ruth is alone, unnoticed and at a loss: her marriage has ended, her daughter is leaving home and her job is leading nowhere.

But luckily Sookie is back in her life – vivid, self-assured Sookie, who never spared the time for Ruth when they were teenagers, but who now seems to want to be friends. What could possibly go wrong?

As Ruth is caught up in Sookie’s life, she sees that everything is not as simple and Instagrammable as Sookie would have you believe. But what has that got to do with Ruth, and what can she do about it?

Unputdownable, funny, spiky and subtle, Other People’s Fun is a novel about modern life and the lies we tell our neighbours, friends, families and selves through the hall of mirrors that is social media. Filled with Harriet Lane’s trademark creeping unease and forensic observation, this marks the long-awaited return of the mistress of literary suspense.