The Woman Upstairs Claire Messud by Claire Messud 9781844087327, 1844087328, B009SS97YK instant download after payment.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor's Children, a brilliant new novel: told with urgency, intimacy, and piercing emotion, the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and betrayed by passion and desire for a world beyond her own set in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Nora Eldridge is a reliable, but unremarkable, friend and neighbour, always on the fringe of other people’s achievements. But the arrival of the Shahid family — dashing Skandar, a Lebanese scholar, glamorous Sirena, an Italian artist, and their son, Reza — draws her into a complex and exciting new world. Nora’s happiness pushes her beyond her boundaries until Sirena’s careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal.

"It’s exhilarating to encounter such unrestrained vehemence in a work by this controlled, intellectual author. Messud’s previous novels, albeit extraordinarily intelligent and well-crafted, are characterized by rationed or distant emotion. The Woman Upstairs is utterly different — its language urgent, its conflicts outsize and unmooring, its mood incendiary. This psychologically charged story feels like a liberation … In this ingenious, disquieting novel, she has assembled an intricate puzzle of self-belief and self-doubt, showing the peril of seeking your own image in someone else’s distorted mirror — or even, sometimes, in your own."  -  Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Sunday Book Review