Lioness – Emily Perkins

READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS

Therese Thorn is a luxury homewares retailer and married to a wealthy man who is accused of corruption. Newly 50, Therese must now take control of her life and reinvent herself, with the help of her kind-of-muse and friend, Claire. A story about female rage and female power; about women who seem poised on the outside but are on fire on the inside.

You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.

● As I shudder through perimenopause it was reassuring to read a work of fiction that somehow captured this quietly unsettled and at times slightly mad way of being. Lioness was a very Kiwi novel, although a richer more well-to-do Kiwi than I know. Despite this cavernous gap between the Thorns and myself, it was somehow still very familiar. I loved Lioness for its portrayal of the rebelliousness of middle-aged women. – Suzy

● As a woman of the same approximate age of Emily Perkins and Therese Thorn, I understood how the foibles of middle age can exacerbate other events in your life. For Therese, her middle age and husband’s investigation by the Serious Fraud Office are enough to fire up her inner rage. She must take charge of her life, stop trying to please everyone else, and instead break free from the pride and transform. Her new friend Claire is at the centre of her support network.

It’s a powerful book about the roles of women and how we fit into consumerist, male dominated, eat-or-be-eaten circles. Perkins raises lots of topical issues for women and for New Zealanders from gender roles, politics, consumerism, greed and personal responsibility. However, Perkins never gets moralistic or preachy, instead putting thoughts forward and encouraging the reader to form their own opinions.

Parts of the book are funny, others sadly recognisable, others surreal and a bit weird but all that rage has to go somewhere! The plot and narrative is built expertly so what seems simple to begin with is anything but by the final pages. – Rachel

Published 2023
Bloomsbury Publishing
352 pages