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Mortmain
Mortmain
Sep 15, 2025 1:44 AM

Author:Judy Corbalis

Mortmain

This is a novel of small-town life. In Castletown, New Zealand, the stifling culture of 'the correct way to behave' crushes the unorthodox like a dead hand.

Needless to say, just under the surface there is a tumult of rebellion. Which of the inhabitants of Castletown will escape, find self-expression, fulfill their dreams? Who is tormented by guilty secrets beneath a blanket of respectability? Who is murdering red-haired girls?

The narrative is driven by the stories of three families: the snobbish, long-established lawyers; the eccentric impoverished aristocrats; and the Maoris who live outside the town. Each family is dominated by a stern patriarch, and once a week the patriarchs meet to play three-handed chess. Their children and grandchildren, meanwhile, begin to recognize that this structured, ordered world is rotten at its core ...

Reviews

A cult classic . . .

—— Daily Express

Tremendous momentum

—— Daily Telegraph

This book gripped me from the first chapter and then dropped me days later, dazed and grinning to myself

—— Conn Iggulden

A terrifically realised encounter between the clashing values of traditional Islam and the hedonistic, secular West... Beautifully written, painfully resolved.

—— Lionel Shriver , The Times

More than a stylish thriller… The central plot has parallels with The Bonfire of the Vanities, while the socialites could be straight out of The Great Gatsby

—— Stylist

A gripping read

—— Kirkus

A superbly compelling novel... As menacing and engrossing as the best McEwan

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times

Osborne brings together all his authorial talents in this gripping and sophisticated thriller

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

Stylish, somehow both lavish and muscular at the same time

—— David Evans , Independent on Sunday

Utterly compelling; at the risk of trotting out a cliché, I couldn't put the book down

—— Justin Cartwright , Observer

A brilliantly observed tale of class and hedonism

—— The Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

Meg Wolitzer’s latest offering promises to be the epic novel of the summer

—— Stella, Sunday Telegraph

A wonderful novel, written with warmth and depth of emotion

—— Kate Mosse , The Times

This is an exhilarating, aerobatic, addictive novel

—— Claire Lowdon , Sunday Times

Meg Wolitzer’s best novel yet

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

The dreamy, criss-crossing narrative proves Wolitzer one of America’s most ingenious and important writers

—— Sunday Telegraph

An engrossing look at life’s twists and turns

—— Woman's Weekly

The wit, intelligence and deep feeling of Wolitzer’s writing are extraordinary and The Interestings brings her achievement, already so steadfast and remarkable, to an even higher level.

—— JEFFREY EUGENIDES

This is a wonderful book. Intelligent and subtle, it is exquisitely written with enormous warmth and depth of emotion… Wolitzer is an affectionate and clear-sighted observer of human nature

—— Kate Mosse , The Times

Meg Wolitzer proves brilliant at writing normal, unremarkable lives, investing them with just as much detailed attention and humane humour as the lives of the beautiful, the rich and the famous… [She] also pulls off an impressive balancing act, sometimes inhabiting the moment-to-moment present of her characters, and at others times writing with a droll hindsight

—— Holly Williams , Independent on Sunday

There are certain authors whose new book you look forward to as though you were about to catch up on news from an old friend. And there are authors whose new book you fall on greedily because you know it will be tartly delicious and satisfy a hunger you didn’t know you had till you read them for the first time. For me, Meg Wolitzer has long been in both of those categories… The Interestings is full of Wolitzer’s trademark pleasures. I love her fearlessness in tackling everything … She has a sly wit and verbal brio which can even make clinical depression entertaining

—— Allison Pearson , Daily Telegraph
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