The Ophelia Girls: An Immersive, Intoxicating Read
'An immersive, intoxicating summer read with the long-lasting feel of a classic' - Molly Aitken, author of The Island Child 'A potent blend of art, beauty, awakening desire and mortality that seduces the reader' - Daily Mail Summer, 1973. Teenage Ruth and her four friends spend the scorching summer days in the river, recreating tableaus of the drowning Ophelia and other tragic heroines. But as autumn draws nearer, real tragedy has found them. Summer, 1997. Ruth returns to her childhood home with her husband and three children, including her eldest daughter seventeen-year-old Maeve. However when Stuart, an old family friend comes to stay, the uneasy relationship between mother and daughter is pushed to its limit. For Stuart's arrival is a reminder of a death in Ruth's past, while Maeve is feeling more alive than ever . . . As the heat of the summer burns, how long can the family go before long-held secrets threaten to burst their banks and drown them all? 'A vivid, sensuous novel . . . I can't recommend it enough' - Anna Bailey, bestselling author of Tall Bones
Jane Healey studied English Literature at Warwick University. She was shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize 2013, the Costa Short Story Award 2014, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2016 and the Penguin Random House WriteNow mentoring programme in 2017. The Ophelia Girls is her second novel. Her first, The Animals at Lockwood Manor, was published in 2020. She lives in Edinburgh.
Author: Jane Healey
Format: Paperback, 368 pages, 130mm x 197mm, 260 g
Published: 2022, Pan Macmillan, United Kingdom
Genre: Romance & Sagas
Interest Age: From 18 years
'An immersive, intoxicating summer read with the long-lasting feel of a classic' - Molly Aitken, author of The Island Child 'A potent blend of art, beauty, awakening desire and mortality that seduces the reader' - Daily Mail Summer, 1973. Teenage Ruth and her four friends spend the scorching summer days in the river, recreating tableaus of the drowning Ophelia and other tragic heroines. But as autumn draws nearer, real tragedy has found them. Summer, 1997. Ruth returns to her childhood home with her husband and three children, including her eldest daughter seventeen-year-old Maeve. However when Stuart, an old family friend comes to stay, the uneasy relationship between mother and daughter is pushed to its limit. For Stuart's arrival is a reminder of a death in Ruth's past, while Maeve is feeling more alive than ever . . . As the heat of the summer burns, how long can the family go before long-held secrets threaten to burst their banks and drown them all? 'A vivid, sensuous novel . . . I can't recommend it enough' - Anna Bailey, bestselling author of Tall Bones
Jane Healey studied English Literature at Warwick University. She was shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize 2013, the Costa Short Story Award 2014, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2016 and the Penguin Random House WriteNow mentoring programme in 2017. The Ophelia Girls is her second novel. Her first, The Animals at Lockwood Manor, was published in 2020. She lives in Edinburgh.