The Smash-Up: a delicious satire from a breakout voice in literary fiction

The Smash-up is a novel by Polly Clark that explores the #MeToo politics, Kavanaugh hearings, and feminist activism through the eyes of Ethan, who is caught between his wife's activism and his daughter's sleep. It is a timely, risky, and dazzling story that is acid-etched and full of heart, intimate, and relevant.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 03 February 2022
Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Timely, risky, and dazzling, Polly Clark's The Smash-Up is a story that is acid-etched and full of heart, intimate, and relevant. Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses and Away, says, "Every woman should read this book. Every woman, every feminist, every activist." Jane Harris, author of Orange Prize shortlisted The Observations, says, "After years spent in the city, working with his business partner Randy on Bränd media, Ethan finds himself in the quiet, closed-off town of Starkfield. His wife Zenobia is perpetually distracted by the swirling #MeToo politics, the Kavanaugh hearings, and her duties to the feminist activism group she formed: All Them Witches. Ethan finds himself caught between their regular meetings at his home and the battle to get his livewire daughter Alex to sleep. But the new, stilted rhythm of his life is interrupted when he receives a panicked message. Accusations. Against Randy. A slew of them. And Ethan is abruptly forced to question everything: his past, his future, his marriage, and what he values most."

Unrelenting in its satire, The Smash-Up jolts you into the twisted psyche of successful brand advertising, where historic exploitation is only ever a panicked phone call away. With magnetic energy and doses of comic wit, Benjamin creates a world of social media algorithms, extreme polarization, the collapsing of identity into tweet-sized spaces, and the spectre of violence that can be found even in the quietest places.

Weight: 244g
Dimension: 130 x 311 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529409345