An unsettling summer romance: as a young woman seeks freedom on a French farm she is ensnared in a toxic relationship, in this shimmering exploration of unchecked male power.

The critically acclaimed debut novel from the T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet -- Frances is a graduate student spending a summer volunteering in rural France, in the hope that tending vegetables and harvesting honey will distract her from a scandal that drove her out of Paris, her research unfinished and her sense of self unmoored. At the eco-farm Noa Noa, she comes under the influence of its charismatic and domineering owner, Paul. As his hold over her tightens and her plans come unstuck, she finds herself entangled in a strange, uneven relationship. On a fraught road trip across the South of France, both are forced to reckon with uncomfortable truths. A compelling and perturbing story of power, passivity and the cage of being 'good', Paul introduces a novelist of extraordinary perspicacity and lyricism.

"Crisp and elegant, the sentences both vivid and precise... With an intelligence lightly worn, this is an immersive, maddening, unsettling read" - Irish Times

"Highly readable... with a sensual elegance and sense of foreboding" - Observer

"Arresting... a creeping sense of claustrophobia that expands with such overbearing stealth, it practically becomes a character in itself... a white-knuckle ride not because of any attendant thrills and spills but because the tension is perpetually on the brink of boiling, and then boiling over" - i paper

"Lafarge's writing really shines... Essentially a novel about a toxic relationship, Paul's many layers of imbalance cover language and voice, complicity, age, and life experience" - Evening Standard

"[A] lyrical debut novel... A compelling read" - Literary Review

"Hypnotic... A formidable and heady novel" - The Fountain

"A brilliantly unsettling debut about male power and female passivity" - Bookseller

"Paul has a neat, intuitive structure... Its plot is light and fast-moving... [a] beautifully constructed novel" - Guardian

"It's beautifully written, Lafarge's well-observed exploration of the power disparity between the pair [is] deepened and textured by intricate, allusive shades of meaning" - Herald

"[A] tense debut from an acclaimed poet... a compellingly creepy study of psychosexual power dynamics that doubles as a shrewd portrait of drifting millennial womanhood" - Daily Mail

"Carefully structured and at times an uncomfortable read, the book has shades of Sally Rooney's hit novels Normal People and Conversations With Friends. Just as it feels that Frances will not be able to escape Paul's hold on her, Lafarge offers a sliver of hope for the fight against the patriarchy" - Scotland on Sunday

"Lafarge is one to watch if this dazzling debut is anything to go by... cinematic" - Good Housekeeping