Book of the Week with Waterstones of King’s Lynn is The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas
In our weekly look at books, we focus on an enthralling, pitiless novel…
The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas is a savagely funny and deliciously dark book that follows a couple whose honeymoon in an exclusive Greek island resort metamorphoses into a living nightmare.
Still reeling from the chaos of their wedding, Evelyn and Richard arrive on the island. It’s the end of the season, and out at sea, a storm is brewing.
They check into an exclusive hotel, the Villa Rosa, where the proprietor, Isabella - a strangely intense woman of indeterminate accent - flirts outrageously with Richard while treating Evelyn with a rudeness bordering on contempt.
Isabella tells them the story of the sleepwalkers, a couple who stayed at the hotel the year before and drowned in a tragic and unexplained accident.
It starts to feel like the entire island is obsessed with sleepwalkers, but what at first seems like a fun tale to tell before bed quickly evolves into a living nightmare.
Caught in a web of deception and intrigue, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem, Evelyn and Richard discover that their island paradise may in fact be hell on earth and that their only means of escape is to confront dark truths about themselves and those they love.
Exhilarating, suspenseful, and subversively funny, in The Sleepwalkers, Thomas takes elements of Daphne Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith and blends them with her own unique sensibility to create an unforgettable thriller of rare intelligence that cements her reputation as the most exciting and original author of her generation.
Top ten chart with Waterstones of Norfolk Street, in Lynn:
1. Raising Hare - Chloe Dalton
2. The Midnight Feast- Lucy Foley
3. The Salt Path – Raynor Winn
4. There Are Rivers In The Sky – Elif Shafak
5. Long Island - Colm Tobin
6. The Glassmaker – Tracy Chevalier
7. Lights Out – Navessa Allen
8. Death at the Sign of the Rook – Kate Atkinson
9. Precipice – Robert Harris
10. A Cold Wind From Moscow – Rory Clements
