Creep

BOOK SUMMARY

Alice and Tom are made for each other. Deeply connected, they share a flat in London, go to galleries together, enjoy the same books and wine. They even share a toothbrush. It's all picture perfect.

Except Alice and Tom have never met. Alice has been cleaning Tom's apartment every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every multivitamin counted in the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation, imagining a love so powerful it might erase a lifetime of self-hatred and loneliness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emma van Straaten is a writer of British-Mauritian heritage living in London with her husband and two children. Born in Lewisham, she grew up on the Sussex coast, headed north to Durham to study English Literature, and is now happily surrounded by books working at The London Library. In 2021, she won the inaugural Women's Prize Discoveries Award with an early partial draft of Creep and has been writing whenever she can, ever since.

PRAISE

"Written in an electric stream of consciousness, van Straaten's debut — which won the inaugural Women's Prize Discoveries Award — is as terrifying as it is heartbreaking, revealing how loneliness and damaging adolescent experiences can shape a person. A chilling book by an exciting new voice." — Vogue (UK)

"A thriller as much as it is an exploration of how we present ourselves and perceive our material culture, this is an evocative story that deserves immediate cult status." — Dazed

"A compelling debut . . . original, darkly funny and addictive — this has twists that will leave you reeling." — Glamour (UK)

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Trade paperback 256 pages
Fiction / thrillers
Dimensions: 8 in (H) | 5.3 in (W) | 0.6 in (T)