"Meet the hosts of 1930s England's most lavish soirees, complete with diamond-clad pets and no shortage of bed-hopping. . . . Riveting." - Town & Country
'This book is truly memorable and thought-provoking; throughout, Zinovieff sustains wonderfully perplexing and complex ambiguities. What is love, and what is exploitation? What is truth and what is self-deception? What is righteousness and what is hypocrisy? Can contradictions be simultaneously true?..I'll remember the characters forever.' - Louis de Bernieres, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
'This is a really important book. I loved it. Thought provoking, emotionally complex, and tackling the topic of the day - the blurred area between consent and abuse.' - Esther Freud, author of Love Falls.
"Told from three vividly established points of view, and traveling back and forth between the 1970s and today, the novel makes a convincing case for how the anything goes ethos of that earlier decade can lead to a reckoning decades later." - Publishers Weekly
"Zinovieff's novel, about the relationship between a young girl and a much older man in the 1970s, and the woman's present-day reckoning with what actually happened, raises important questions about consent and agency." - Self
"Thought-provoking and relevant." - Washington Post
"Putney is a story about the long shadow abuse can cast on the lives of all involved, but it consistently works on intellectual and emotional levels in order to tell that story." - Open Letters Review
"Zinovieff's novel is a nuanced, thought-provoking plunge into the questioning depths of consent and exploitation. Putney is a discussion starter. " - Booklist
"A finely nuanced study of the way different people make subjective sense of the past, and a reminder that the novel (like the analyst's couch) is a great space for thinking about the unthinkable." - Sunday Times (London)
"The characters in Zinovieff's book are alternatively complicit and sympathetic. The novel manages its hefty load through brilliant writing, astute psychological insight, and the scenery of Greek islands. This post-MeToo Lolita will challenge your preconceptions on every page." - Refinery 29
"Zinovieff's triptych is too nuanced for hashtags, yet perfectly tuned to #MeToo." - Vulture
"Involving, beautifully written, and subtle . There are terribly difficult questions here, dealt with sensitively and intelligently." - --The Spectator
"..a disturbing, well-structured, nuanced story that provides no simple answers -- an important addition to an urgent, current conversation." - The Financial Times
'The art of its telling is everything: the reader is duped and lulled and excited, just like the child subject, and yet we are able to understand Ralph too, and the switch from uneasy but gripping romantic narrative to discourse of abuse is jolting and shocking and right.' - Michèle Roberts author of Daughters of the House.
"The ultimate taboo brought to life in a way that's thrillingly disturbing and evocative. I couldn't leave it." - Mary Portas, author of Shop Girl
"Zinovieff is obviously working with themes playing out in contemporary culture, but her novel is also reminiscent of the work of Iris Murdoch and A.S. Byatt...Timely and nuanced." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Sofka Zinovieff's second novel .. delves deep into the discussions surrounding consent and abuse of power. She has written a contemporary Lolita in which the rules of engagement have changed, women are speaking out about the ways they have been misused and the Humbert Humberts face prosecution and disgrace..."A novel that is accomplished, timely and unusually well wrought." - Guardian