Synopsis
'This is a novel about obsessional love. The fact that those involved are two women, and that their relationship is not that of lovers, but friends, only intensifies the book's compelling power.' Christina Koning, The Times * Ornella and Veronica are the very best of friends, sharing everything, hiding nothing. Ornella, domineering and flamboyant, becomes a doctor, Veronica, observant and self-possessed, a journalist. * But then something goes horribly wrong, and what was once the truest of friendships disintegrates into a nightmare of barely controlled resentment. As Ornella's loyalty fades, Veronica's desperate need for reconciliation becomes a matter of life and death -- and if you can't trust your best friend with your life, then who can you trust?
From the Publisher
From the reviews for Venus Flaring'Compelling power...Dunn shows again her gift for making the ordinary seem extraordinary. Her ear for the rhythms of speech is unerring, her feeling for the minutiae of experience acute. It takes a good deal of artistry to create the illusion of real life, and she has managed something more difficult still, which is to show us how strange real life can be.' CHRISTINA KONING, The Times 'A sensitive and often funny story, that impressively treats a friendship between young women with the sort of grandness and ceremony usually reserved (by novelists) for love affairs.' SUSIE BOYT, Independent 'The prose is precise, images bloom like bruises or blood drops...compact worlds are contained in the simplest of descriptions. Dunn is a surgeon of the heart, and her observations are sparky.' EITHNE FARRY, Time Out
'In each of her previous novels, Suzannah Dunn has filled me with admiration... She writes with extraordinary depth of understanding. Venus Flaring is a wonderful affirmation of her talent and originality. She has created two characters so real you feel you come to know them better than her own friends... Their story is by turns funny, moving and, at times, harrowing in its intensity.' Martyn Bedford
'Venus Flaring treats familiar themes to a witty and original overhaul. Dunn marries plot and themes, to create a haunting, melancholy tone perfectly suited to the sense of loss which afflicts even minor characters.' TLS
'After reading Venus Flaring no other book will strike quite so close to your soul... Dunn time after time stuns the reader. This is a vital, refreshing, terrifiyingly brilliant novel that demands to be read.' Finetime
'That stark feeling of betrayal is at its most potent when it has bitten away at a lifelong and seemingly solid friendship. In this cruel gem of a book, Suzannah Dunn writes with economy and flair. If a pacey intelligent read is what you're after, dip in and let her prose penetrate your nightmares.' The List
'Edged with insights and observations that glitter darkly... The novel's last fifty pages are unbearable to break and have to be read at one sitting.' Impact