Feast

Overview

A compelling novel of three women and their dark secrets.

Three women. Three secrets. One weekend.

Alison is an actress who no longer acts, Patrick a musician past his prime. The eccentric couple live an isolated, debauched existence in an old manor house in Scotland, a few miles outside their village. That is, until Patrick's teenage daughter, Neve, flees Australia to spend a year abroad with her doting, if unreliable, father, and the stepmother she barely knows.

On the weekend of Neve's eighteenth birthday, her father insists on a special feast to mark her coming of age. Despite Neve's objections, her mother Shannon arrives in Scotland to join the celebrations. What none of them know is that Shannon has arrived with a hidden agenda that has the potential to shatter the delicate façade of the loving, if dysfunctional, family.

Feast is the story of three women connected beyond blood, and what happens when their darkest secrets are hauled into the light.

Reviews

"A triumph: bloody, haunting and pulsing with the lives of the expertly rendered ensemble at its core. It is, as the title suggests, a feast for the senses, and one that deeply examines the frustrations and unmet needs that leave women hungry for more  . . . O’Grady is a clever writer and her ability to craft a tense and compelling story within the confines of this house, over a single weekend, is admirable. Feast is meaty and provocative in its exploration of power, desire and the hunger for something more." —Guardian

Shortlisted for 2024 Stella Prize

Author Biography

Emily O'Grady is a writer from Brisbane. Her debut novel, The Yellow House won the 2018 Australian/Vogel's Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, The Big Issue fiction edition and New Australian Fiction 2021.