'Tense, elegant, sensuous.' Niamh Campbell, author of WE WERE YOUNG

'In The Anniversary Stephanie Bishop expertly and mercilessly builds an atmosphere of intense uncertainty and threat. You won't want to put it down.' Chris Power, author of MOTHERS

'The dread that slowly creeps into your bones while reading The Anniversary is difficult to shake off, yet you cannot look away. I revelled in every bit of this astute, compelling, psychological novel.' Virginia Feito, author of MRS MARCH

'Exquisite, profound, and utterly exhilarating: The Anniversary is a stunning achievement.' Mark Brandi, author of WIMMERA

Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Her former professor, Patrick is much older than J.B.. But when they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all new gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. He is a film director. A cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his.
For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. There is nothing but dark water all around them.
Then a storm hits and Patrick falls off the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick - and the truth about their marriage - begins.

About the Author

Stephanie Bishop is a widely acclaimed novelist and critic. She is the recipient of multiple prizes, including The Readings Prize for New Australian Writing, the Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (shortlisted), the Christina Stead Prize for fiction (shortlisted) and the Stella Prize (longlisted). She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Her second novel, The Other Side of the World was named Literary Fiction Book of the Year in the Australian Book Industry Awards 2016 and winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Writing 2015. It was also shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Indie Book Awards and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards as well as being longlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize.


Her next novel, Man Out of Time was also longlisted for the Stella Prize, and shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for fiction.

Reviews
The Anniversary is a haunting mystery, sophisticated, subtle and subversive. Bishop considers the discipline, scrupulous and otherwise, required to make a marriage, as well as to make art, capturing the longing and the disappointment inherent in the attempt to make one's self known to others. -- Susanna Moore, author of IN THE CUT
The Anniversary is a disquieting, stunning book about marriage, art, power and creativity. -- Anna Bonet * THE I PAPER *
The Anniversary is a compulsive yet redemptive book layered with nuances that will have those new to Bishop's work hunting out her backlist. -- Susie Mesure * FINANCIAL TIMES *
In The Anniversary Stephanie Bishop expertly and mercilessly builds an atmosphere of intense uncertainty and threat. You won't want to put it down. -- Chris Power, author of MOTHERS
Dangerously readable... If only all literary novels were this engaging and this perceptive about human nature. -- Alexander Larman * THE OBSERVER *
Electrifying -- Claire Lowdon * SUNDAY TIMES *
With a unique style and descriptions so real you can feel the salt-spray drift from the page, The Anniversary draws you in. Addictive and dynamic. -- Charlotte Roberts * HEAT MAGAZINE *
The dread that slowly creeps into your bones while reading The Anniversary is difficult to shake off, yet you cannot look away. I revelled in every bit of this astute, compelling, psychological novel. -- Virginia Feito, author of MRS MARCH
The sense of foreboding increases as the narrative progresses and I found it impossible to put down. It's excellent on how a partner's resentment can grow until it explodes as if from nowhere. It's also wonderful on writing itself and how our protagonists both enable and block each other's process. I adored it. -- Sara Lawrence * DAILY MAIL *
Nothing in this exquisitely twisted tale is quite what it seems. But though the cool, sharp, disenchanted narrator is not to be trusted, one thing about her is for real - her ability to say things so witty and so pungently true I kept turning down pages to mark them. If I kept a commonplace book I would have filled it with lines from this compelling novel about creativity and its discontents -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of THE PIKE
I very much enjoyed The Anniversary. It put me in mind of Gone Girl and of Fleishman Is in Trouble too. It nails so much about how ruthless a writer of fiction needs to be both in relation to life and material -- Polly Samson, author of A THEATRE FOR DREAMERS
Such a stylish, incisive novel, tight with suspense and powerful insight. I loved it and will be recommending it far and wide -- Megan Hunter, author of THE END WE START FROM
Tense, elegant, sensuous. -- Niamh Campbell, author of WE WERE YOUNG
Exquisite, profound, and utterly exhilarating: The Anniversary is a stunning achievement. -- Mark Brandi, author of WIMMERA
I absolutely loved THE ANNIVERSARY, with its very rare combination of elegance and tension. The dark yet subtle sense of foreboding draws you into the story so cleverly. Magnificent writing that is utterly compelling -- Joanna Cannon, author of THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP
Very addictive and so smart - a fever dream about a writer getting everything they want and living out all their nightmares at the same time -- Rebecca May Johnson, author of SMALL FIRES
I absolutely loved The Anniversary, a literary thriller that is simultaneously addictive, compelling, and deeply clever -- Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of EVERYONE IS STILL ALIVE
Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary is literature at its very, very best - her talent shimmers off every single page, her prose is exquisite and her observations about the complexities and competitiveness of intimate relationships, the chaos of the human condition and the inexorable tension between love, family, creativity and art-making are second to none. This novel is an absolute triumph in every respect -- Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of MY BODY KEEPS YOUR SECRETS
Compelling and dark, a psychological thriller that makes you want to peel back the pages . . . The Anniversary lives up to the hype. For fans of Rachel Cusk and Siri Hustvedt * Books + Publishing *
Stephanie Bishop's novel The Anniversary is seductive, mysterious, and fiercely intelligent. Bishop peels back, with great insight and artistry, layer after layer of her character's psyche, laying bare the singular pleasures and secret resentments at the centre of any marriage, any life. This is a book to be savoured for its elegant sentences and psychological depth, but you'll be hard-pressed not to devour it in a few voracious sittings. -- Sara Freeman, author of TIDES
It is intelligent and literary in the best sense of the word: fluent in style, self-aware in its deployment of genre... in the metaphysical reach of this book, the writer I kept thinking of was Iris Murdoch * Weekend Australian *
Absolutely addictive. When reading The Anniversary, I found myself forgetting who I am or where I was. Only art that exudes brilliance can conjure this state -- Szilvia Molnar, author of THE NURSERY
Tense, elegant, sensuous -- Niamh Campbell, author of WE WERE YOUNG
In The Anniversary Stephanie Bishop expertly and mercilessly builds an atmosphere of intense uncertainty and threat. You won't want to put it down. -- Chris Power, author of MOTHERS
'The dread that slowly creeps into your bones while reading The Anniversary is difficult to shake off, yet you cannot look away. I revelled in every bit of this astute, compelling, psychological novel. -- Virginia Feito, author of MRS MARCH
Exquisite, profound, and utterly exhilarating: The Anniversary is a stunning achievement. -- Mark Brandi, author of WIMMERA
Nothing in this exquisitely twisted tale is quite what it seems. But though the cool, sharp, disenchanted narrator is not to be trusted, one thing about her is for real - her ability to say things so witty and so pungently true I kept turning down pages to mark them. If I kept a commonplace book I would have filled it with lines from this compelling novel about creativity and its discontents -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of THE PIKE



Book Information
ISBN 9781474626132
Author Stephanie Bishop
Format Hardback
Page Count 432
Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Weight(grams) 540g
Dimensions(mm) 220mm * 144mm * 40mm