The Body Lies

‘A propulsive #Metoo thriller’ GUARDIAN

By: Jo Baker

Narrated by: Imogen Church, Deborah McBride, Sam Woolf, Simon Ludders, Julie Maisey

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Body Lies by Jo Baker, read by Imogen Church, Deborah McBride, Sam Woolf, Simon Ludders and Julie Maisey.

A layered and thrilling suspense novel that grapples with how to live as a woman in the modern world - or in the pages of a book - when the stakes are dangerously high.

When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it’s meant to be a fresh start, away from the big city and the scene of a violent assault she’s desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of a new life and single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative writing group.

When a troubled student starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.

Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late?

At once a breathless cat-and-mouse game and a disarming exploration of sexual politics, The Body Lies is an essential book for our times.

Critic reviews

A propulsive #MeToo thriller investi­gating consent and male entitlement as well as the borders between truth and fiction.

Build-up of tension is EXCELLENT

Packs a powerful punch on every page

Gripping ... with lots to say about sexual politics

This superior thriller looks at how novels represent violence through the story of a creative writing teacher who finds herself trapped between the borders of life and fiction after recognising herself in a story written by one of her students

Powerful read

Jo Baker’s THE BODY LIES is gripping and strange in the best possible way: the perfect marriage of risky literary fiction and full-on thriller.

This page-turning thrilller has a sympathetic and utterly believable heroine, but it's also an examination of how women's bodies are treated, in life and in fiction.

A literary exploration of consent, entitlement and how narratives can be bent, misappropriated and wrested back. I loved it.

A shrewdly layered thriller that unflinchingly tackles the quagmire of pressure, judgement and ever-present danger women navigate in their daily lives