"FAULTLESS." -The Guardian *** "A SLY PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER." -The Observer

Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine's sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.

Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, Pet will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Go-Between, Heavenly Creatures and Au Revoir Les Enfants among them.

About the Author
Catherine Chidgey's novels have been published to international acclaim. Her first, In a Fishbone Church, won Best First Book at the New Zealand Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific). In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second, Golden Deeds, was a Notable Book of the Year in The New York Times Book Review and a Best Book in the LA Times. Catherine has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for The Wish Child. She lives in Ngaruawahia and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Her novel Remote Sympathy was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Reviews

"A superb character study, delivered with panache."

* The Bookseller's "Fiction Book of the Month" *

"A remarkable and original writer, whose novels have the golden combination of being both riveting and superbly-written."

* Lissa Evans *

"A dark and compelling story of guilt and betrayal. Add to it a near-perfect plot twist and you have a novel that lives long in the mind."

* Alex Preston *

"Catherine Chidgey mobilises the misgivings shared by all children who love and lose, the fear of being odd, the longing to be special, the horror of being supplanted. Pet is a novel hard not to swallow entire in one go, by when the reader will be full of hooks and wary as an old pike."

* Candia McWilliam *

"Catherine Chidgey brilliantly evokes the very particular preoccupations, fascinations, and cruelties of 11 and 12 year olds. The story is built of details which accumulate in a growing unease till the reader too begins to doubt her own judgement. Rivetingly tense and observant."

* Elizabeth Cook *

"Refreshing, compelling and surprising, this novel skirts around familiar tropes to deliver something new and troubling. Sharp writing, keen observations and killer wit."

* Ann Morgan *

"Pet is a page-turning psychological thriller: tense, uncomfortable and completely gripping."

* NZ Herald *


Awards
Long-listed for Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2024 (New Zealand).



Book Information
ISBN 9781787705081
Author Catherine Chidgey
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Europa Editions (UK) Ltd
Publisher Europa Editions (UK) Ltd