Sympathy By Olivia Sudjic

About The Book

An electrifying novel of blood ties, online identities, and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age. At twenty-three, Alice Hare leaves England for New York. She falls in love with Manhattan, and becomes fixated on Mizuko Himura, an intriguing Japanese writer whose life has strange parallels to her own. As Alice closes in on Mizuko, her ‘internet twin’, realities multiply and fact and fiction begin to blur. The relationship between the two women exposes a tangle of lies and sexual encounters. Three families collide as Alice learns that the swiftest answer to an ancient question – where do we come from? – can now be found online.

Review

A smart story of obsession and technology... exquisite... an astute, quirky, slow-burning satire on emerging codes of behaviour, intergenerational differences, globalisation, the tech industry and the vortex of the dark web― Guardian

A stalker's story shows how the web has shaped a generation... This impressive novel is alive with clever ideas― The Times

Engrossing... an intelligent and absorbing literary thriller that promises much for the future― Financial Times

A memorable debut. Sudjic's acute observations and sharp wit engage readers from the off, but the real revelation here is how Sympathy deepens and darkens as it goes into something altogether rawer, wiser and more challenging― Peter Ho Davies, author of 'The Fortunes'

A fiercely written and brilliantly realised debut novel about the warped world between online and real life identities, the fine line between connecting and surveillance and what that means for personal responsibility in the digital age. A must read!― Pages of Hackney, Summer Reading Guide

Brilliant, compelling, beautifully written and deeply disturbing.-- Martha Lane Fox

About Author

Olivia Sudjic

Olivia Sudjic was born in 1988 in London. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University where she was awarded the E.G. Harwood English Prize and made a Bateman Scholar. Her debut novel, ‘Sympathy’, will be published in 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (USA/Canada), ONE (UK), Kein & Aber (Germany), Minimum Fax (Italy) and Wydawnictwo Czarna Owca (Poland). She is one of The Observer’s ‘New Faces of Fiction’ for 2017.