Description
From the author longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction and selected as one of the Best Young British Novelists of the Decade:
An unsettling and addictive feminist fable for fans of Hot Milk, Unsettled Ground and Klara and the Sun
Recommended by Stylist, Evening Standard, Esquire, Red, Daily Mail, Oprah Magazine, LitHub, and Belletrist Book Club
'Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes' Deborah Levy
'Definitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh' Stylist
Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the lottery station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. Or, to put it another way, you have no choice. And once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back.
But what if the life you're given is the wrong one?
Blue Ticket is a devastating enquiry into free will and the fraught space of motherhood. Bold and chilling, it pushes beneath the skin of female identity and patriarchal violence, to the point where human longing meets our animal bodies.
'Dreamlike, tense, compelling, [with] a pitch-perfect ending' The New York Times
'Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric' Sunday Times
'Thoughtful and haunting' Observer
'Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure' LitHub
'Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams' Red
About the Author
Sophie Mackintosh is the author of three novels: The Water Cure, Blue Ticket and Cursed Bread. Her debut novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 and won a Betty Trask Award 2019. Cursed Bread was longlisted for the Women's Prize 2023. She has been published in Granta, The White Review and TANK magazine among others.
Reviews
Definitely don't miss the return of Sophie Mackintosh... Blue Ticket gets to the root of women's ambivalence and confusion around becoming mothers set against an unsettling dystopia; she's amazing * Stylist, Best Autumn Reads 2020 *
Dreamlike, tense, compelling... Blue Ticket adds something new to the dystopian tradition set by Orwell's 1984 or Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale... Piercing moments of wisdom and insight drive toward a pitch-perfect ending * The New York Times *
The cool intensity and strange beauty of Blue Ticket is a wonder - be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes -- Deborah Levy, author of 'Hot Milk'
Even more hallucinatory and spiralled than her first [novel]... Terrifying and enchanting in equal measure * Lit Hub, Best New Books to Read This Summer *
The Handmaid's Tale as told by David Lynch... A bona fide chase narrative as well as a polyvalent, dream-like allegory of pregnancy and bodily change - not to mention the vortex of judgement that surrounds womanhood... Mackintosh is part of an exciting generation of writers, including Daisy Johnson and Julia Armfield... Blue Ticket stands apart from the crowd -- Anthony Cummins * iNews *
One of the most disquieting novels I've read in a long time, Blue Ticket will worms its way under your skin and haunt your dreams * Red, 'Best Books of August' *
Gripping, ethereal, atmospheric... Mackintosh handles haziness deliberately and with poise, demonstrating the near impossibility of trying to articulate or rationalise maternal desire * Sunday Times *
Mackintosh writes with a language drawn from the body.... Impressionistic and haunting in equal measure -- Annabel Nugent * Independent *
Visceral, primal, striking... This is a potent exploration of biology and agency, motherhood and childlessness, which confirms [Mackintosh] as a writer of note * Daily Mail *
Mackintosh is part of a new generation of female writers creating feminist fictions that relate uncannily to our dystopian times... [Her] fiction lives, to an unusual extent, in its musicality, in the rhythm and spareness of its sentences -- Claire Armitstead * Guardian Review *
For anyone currently waiting with bated breath for the new season of 'The Handmaid's Tale', Booker-longlisted author Sophie Mackintosh's new novel is a feminist dystopia to quench your thirst * Evening Standard *
A thoughtful and haunting exploration of freedom, fate and a woman's right to choose her destiny * Observer *
Chilling, timely, thought-provoking * Esquire, Best Books of Summer 2020 *
[Mackintosh] writes with an ethereal lyricism that is equally capable of fragility and violence * Spectator *
Blue Ticket offers a completely different angle on a familiar subject... Like all good speculative fiction, [it] reminds us of a truth in the real world * New Humanist *
A compelling, unsettling tale... Part-horror, part thriller, and part pregnant-lesbian love story * i *
A dark fable... Mackintosh sensitively conveys resonant questions about motherhood, female solidarity, queer love, and bodily autonomy * New Yorker *
Cool, disturbing, it deals with emotionally fraught material. Mackintosh traffics in ambivalence and ambiguity... What Calla really wants, the author shows us, isn't necessarily a baby; it's an answer * Washington Post *
A spare, haunting tale of autonomy and free will -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail *
Both claustrophobic and expansive, dream-like and heart-stoppingly tense. You will want to languish in its world for a very long time -- Lara Williams, author of 'Supper Club'
This book left me breathless - it is gloriously subversive in its exploration of motherhood and desire. I'll be pressing it on everyone -- Angela Chadwick, author of 'XX'
Strange and luminous, spare and precise... A thrilling exploration of what it means to follow one's own longing to the point of destruction and beyond -- Rosie Price, author of 'What Red Was'
Utterly exquisite - clever and brilliant and heartbreaking. From the dusty road to the salving forest, I absolutely adored it -- Emma Jane Unsworth, author of 'Adults' and 'Animals'
Chilling, haunting, heartbreaking... Mackintosh brings a new sense of pathos to the dystopian novel... A moving and original meditation on freedom, fate, and women's rage * Kirkus, Starred Review *
A dreamlike exploration of free will and desire * Monocle *
A must for Handmaid's Tale aficionados * Booklist *
Powerful, Ishiguro-esque... Sophie Mackintosh lays bare many of the fears and realities that face any society's women as they contemplate when their choices begin, and where they might end * Boston Globe *
Told with ragged prose that catches the breath, [Blue Ticket] articulates the irrepressible desires and wounds that can lie deep within, marked by a claustrophobia that never stops pressing in from the margins. This unsettling reimagining of the anxieties and pressures around motherhood lays bare the alienation that comes when your body is not truly yours * Irish News *
A darkly brilliant allegory... Astute, revelatory and heartbreaking
A rich, sharp, and daring book. To read Blue Ticket is to feel so vigorously alert you can feel the world turning
Mesmerising * Daily Nerd *
Mackintosh poses urgent questions about social expectations and free will that are relevant to all realities * Poets and Writers *
Book Information
ISBN 9780241986691
Author Sophie Mackintosh
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 213g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 18mm
