Damage

Josephine Hart’s debut novel, Damage, was an instant success. She wrote this, a new introduction to the tale of erotic obsession, just before her death * Guardian *A remarkable first novel of awesome accomplishment and quite startling psychological insight… ‘Un-put-downable’ is here, for once, not hyperbolic * Ruth Rendell *The effect is powerful: here is naked obsession, sulfurous, total, scarcely possible to live with * Financial Times *The reader looks on with mingled shock and fascination. A tour de force * New York Times *A taut, sinister tale of erotic obsession * Vanity Fair *A passionate, elegant, ruthless story – Iris MurdochDamage is a masterpiece * Washington Post *To read this tale of mutual obsession is like being abducted. Josephine Hart has managed to create a portrait of psychological and erotic obsession that is so compelling as, for a brief moment, to suck all the oxygen out of the air * Los Angeles Times *This spare, dreamlike first novel comes festooned with blurbs from the likes of Ruth Rendell and Iris Murdoch, and no wonder, for it’s an unforgettable tale of sexual obsession and its calamitous consequences… Elliptical, haunting, and altogether extraordinary * Kirkus *Next to the often-contrived twists and revelations of today’s psychological suspense, Hart’s spare tale of all-consuming obsession is refreshingly straightforward * Library Journal *The violent dreamscape of Damage stayed with me long after I closed the book. Did I dream it? Did I live it? My very uncertainty tells me I have read something rare * Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying *

Josephine Hart (1942-2011) was the bestselling author of Damage, Sin, Oblivion and The Reconstructionist. She was a Director of Haymarket Publishing and founded Gallery Poets before going on to produce a number of West End plays. As well writing novels, she was a ‘poetry evangelist’ and her Josephine Hart Poetry Hour at the British Library inspired two edited poetry books: Catching Life By the Throat and Words that Burn. She was married to Maurice Saatchi and had two sons.

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