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Daisy johnson everything under6/23/2023 ![]() ![]() We quickly discover that the ‘you’ to whom Gretel speaks is her estranged mother, Sarah, who raised her in their own private, peculiar world on the backwaters of the English countryside and then abandoned her when Gretel was 16. It’s been a long time since I’ve read something written in the second person and found the effect of Johnson’s ‘you’ quite arresting: such a bold start only serves to set a precedent for the rest of this daring, audacious novel. ![]() Johnson’s novel opens with the voice of our narrator, a young woman named Gretel, who begins speaking to us in the second person. It is perhaps useful, in order to afford the story both more context and depth, to know that the novel is a rework of a Greek myth: however if you don’t want to ruin it for yourself – don’t find out which one!Īnd if you want to take my advice and avoid spoilers: STOP READING HERE! I went into Everything Under completely blind and thus had a really unique reading experience, in that every twist and turn in the narrative was a delightful surprise. If there’s one piece of advice I would give to you before starting this book, it would be to not do too much research about it. ![]() I was keen to read Daisy Johson’s debut novel Everything Under since it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and so when I learnt that the French publisher I am interning for (at time of writing) are to publish the book in translation early next year – and that I could borrow the English copy from the Foreign Acquisitions team – I was very excited! ![]()
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