Heather, The Totality

‘Chilling and poised, I loved it’ MAGGIE O’FARRELLThe Breakstone family arrange themselves around their daughter Heather, and the world seems to follow: she is the greatest blessing in their lives of Manhattan luxury. But as Heather grows, her radiance attracts a dark interest and their perfect existence starts to fracture. A very different life, one raised in poverty and in violence, is beginning its own malign orbit around Heather.

Reviews of Heather, The Totality

Heather, The Totality is superb. It gripped me at once. There was no question of turning away at any point. Weiner conveys the sense that beyond the brilliantly chosen details there was a wealth of similarly truthful social and psychological perception unstated. Then there was the ice-cold mercilessness, of a kind that reminded me (oddly, I suppose, but there it was) of Evelyn Waugh. This novel is something special — PHILIP PULLMAN Beautifully written . . . Curious and unexpected — JOHN BURNSIDE * * Guardian * * A lean, sharp meta-thriller. The writing is laconic and assured . . . . Superb * * Spectator * * Holds you in a way novels seldom do . . . It should be consumed at one sitting * * Financial Times * * This short novel of upper-crust anomie and class-divide obsession is a scorcher! It's the classic noir construction: the short walk off the long ledge and the plummet to an indifferent Hell. Matthew Weiner demonically delivers the goods! Read this book in one gasping breath — JAMES ELLROY Obsession, wealth, anomie, parenting and sociopathic fantasy; about what happens when a young girl comes into contact with an evil man . . . Engaging and brilliant * * Sunday Times * * Chilling and poised, I loved it — MAGGIE O'FARRELL A bleakly elegant tale of ennui and class envy . . . Weiner has a knack for writing sentences that grab and grip . . . addictive, even thrilling * * Observer * * An exciting debut novel with a fast-paced plot and plenty of suspense * * Vogue * * Short and rapier-sharp, Matthew Weiner's Heather, The Totality compels and unnerves in equal measure. Like the great Patricia Highsmith, Weiner renders the disturbing not just plausible but exquisitely, agonisingly inevitable. A tour de force — CLAIRE MESSUD