Little Bandaged Days
21 January 2021Synopsis
'A chilling read’ Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, The Serial Killer
'Gripping . . . wonderfully written' Guardian
'Beautifully written and frighteningly honest' Sunday Express
A mother moves to Geneva with her husband and their two young children. In their newly rented apartment, she is surrounded by everything she could possibly need to create a perfect family home. Her husband’s job means he is almost never present, and her entire world is caring for her children – making sure they are happy and fed and comfortable.
But things aren’t perfect. Rather, they are unravelling, because the loneliness, the lack of sleep and the demands of two little ones are getting to this mother. She has never been so isolated, and once the children are in bed, the apartment itself begins to feel like a threat . . .
Kyra Wilder’s Little Bandaged Days is a beautifully written, painfully claustrophobic story about a woman’s descent into madness. Unpredictable, frighteningly compelling and brutally honest, it grapples with the harsh conditions of motherhood and this mother’s own identity, and as the novel continues, we begin to wonder just what exactly she might be driven to do.
Details
21 January 2021
9781529017403Reviews
Gripping, composed, observant, wonderfully written and extravagantly cruelGuardian
Wilder artfully cranks up the tension, so you don't quite know when you begin to hold your breath. A chilling readOyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, The Serial Killer
Breathtaking . . . a compelling tale of a woman’s slide into madness, all while living what seems to be the perfect life. Part metaphor for modern life, part lament for the lost wildness of life, this novel demonstrates both writing chops and deeper themes. Wilder is a writer to watchRene Denfeld, author of The Child Finder
I found it horribly seductive and almost read it through my fingers with a level of recognition and dread. Any mother of young children will recognise the fringes of the feelings evoked by such clear pellucid prose and startling imagery. It's a fantastically visceral and vivid account of the onset of madness set against the backdrop of a polite, middle-class setting: the mundane refracted through the hallucinatoryLesley Glaister, author of Little Egypt
