The Night Guest - Couverture souple

This debut novel stands out among the year's strongest so far, with its delicately told story of two women whose lives temporarily entwine: one an ageing widow, the other a larger-than-life carer who inveigles herself into the widow's emotional life - and home. Its cool, controlled prose explores the intersections between dementia, unreliable narration, and elderly exploitation, regarding loss, ageing and racial tension without a hint of cliché. And it's a tension-filled psychological thriller to boot, all inspiring the use of that overused phrase 'a must read'. (Independent on Sunday)

Horribly believable, The Night Guest is an impressive debut novel that sustains the tense unravelling of its mystery. (The Sunday Times)

This psychological thriller feels uneasily close to the realities many families face . . . What's real and what's imagined are terrifyingly difficult to distinguish. It's surreal and menacing. (The Times)

McFarlane exploits the vulnerably blurry boundaries of memory here to create a subtle and beguiling crescendo of suspense . . . A limpid, beautiful novel. (Daily Mail)

A witty, poetic psychological thriller in which the reader becomes so firmly embedded in Ruth's mind that one cannot help but sympathise with her confusion (Financial Times)

A powerfully distinctive narrative about identity and memory, the weight of life and the approach of death (Guardian)

Beautifully written and psychologically tense . . . extraordinarily accomplished (Sunday Express)

You wouldn't think this was a debut novel, it is so accomplished and confident . . . A witty, menacing psychological thriller (Mumsnet)

In an isolated house on the New South Wales coast, Ruth - a widow whose sons work abroad - lives alone. Until one day a stranger bowls up, announcing that she's been sent by the authorities to be Ruth's carer.

At first, Ruth is happy to have the company. Frida is efficient and helpful, and willing to listen to Ruth's stories about her childhood in Fiji and the man she fell for there. But why does Ruth hear a tiger prowling through the house at night? How far can Ruth trust this enigmatic woman? And how far can she trust herself?

This hypnotic tale soars above its own suspense to tell us, with exceptional grace and beauty, about ageing, love, dependence, fear and power, and about the mysterious workings of the mind. Here is a dazzling new writer, reminding us how powerfully fiction can speak to our innermost secrets.