Patrick Carey

Yes, exactly.

I read a real corker, actually.

It's called In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado and some listeners might know her.

She was in Australia a couple of years ago for the Sydney Writers' Festival and she, prior to this book, had just published one collection of short stories called Her Body and Other Parties, which has to rate as one of the best titles in recent times, I think.

And she is very much in the tradition, or at least that first book, is very much in the tradition of writing

People like Angela Carter and Karen Russell and Kelly Link, who, you know, sort of very broadly fall under the umbrella of magical realism, I suppose.

But it's magical realism with a real focus on genre, so sci-fi, horror, but brought to bear on this quite literary, quite deep genre.

So that collection of short stories is great and I recommend it.

But she sort of brought this technique to bear on a new book, which is in fact non-fiction, if you can believe it, which is a memoir of an abusive relationship that she was in.

And this book...

still uses generic conventions from horror, from, you know, sort of pop culture, from mystery stories, from the Gothic, but she uses these tropes to tell the story of the real-life events of her domestically abusive relationship, which then goes on to become this really amazing memoir.

So it's a really interesting idea to use sort of fictional techniques on memoir, but I read it in a day.

It's amazing.

It's extremely readable, and the dedication on that book is, you know...

if you feel like you need this book, it's for you.

And I think it's something that maybe everyone needs to read.

I mean, longer than six months, to be honest with you, Cassie.

Your whole life.

So he's an American writer.

This is his second book.