Obsession by Elspeth Sandys
Published by Upstart Press, Trade Paperback, RRP $34.99

A literary mystery tale, the story of an obsessive love affair, from award-winning writer Elspeth Sandys

Two men and a woman: the woman obsessed with her husband; the husband obsessed with his island home and the country whose stories he has made it his mission to tell; the man obsessed with the couple whose dynamic both fascinates and repels him. Against a background of two decades of social upheaval, this bitter-sweet tale of tangled relationships moves towards its dramatic, unpredictable conclusion.

 

The two people at the heart of the story are writers. The third person in the triangle is a celebrated poet of Dalmatian extraction.
It recreates the era in an atmosphere charged with New Zealand’s 1980s culture, set in an imaginary island where the dense bush forms a metaphor for the difficulties of a struggling writer striving to raise her head above the dominating reputation of her lover.

About the author:

Elspeth Sandys is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer who has written extensively for the BBC and RNZ. She has published eight novels, two collections of short stories and a memoir. She has also worked in film and television and her plays have been produced in New Zealand and the UK. Elspeth lives in Wellington but returns regularly to the UK where she lived for 25 years. Obsession is her ninth novel.