* LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION * A NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF
2019 SELECTION * ONE OF TIME'S 10 BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR * ONE OF WASHINGTON POST'S 50 BEST
BOOKS OF 2019 * ONE OF O MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * A profound meditation on the nature of
reality...An extraordinary and dazzlingly original work from one of our most gifted and
interesting writers. -EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL author of Station Eleven Phillips is as always
doing something at once wildly her own and utterly primal. Maybe it doesn't surprise me that
the strangest book I've read about motherhood is also the best but it does thrill me. -REBECCA
MAKKAI author of The Great Believers Spellbinding...both unsettling and irresistible. Phillips
manifests the surreal terrifying and visceral experience of motherhood. -DANA SPIOTTA author
of Innocents and Others Like parenthood itself The Need is frightening and maddening and full
of dark comedy... Everyday life here is both tedious and fascinating grotesque and lovely
familiar and tremendously strange. -NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (EDITORS' CHOICE) [A]n
extraordinary writer at her electrifying best. -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW) When Molly
home alone with her two young children hears footsteps in the living room she tries to
convince herself it's the sleep deprivation. She's been hearing things these days. Startling at
loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It's what mothers do she knows. But then the
footsteps come again and she catches a glimpse of movement. Suddenly Molly finds herself
face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts
to protect those she loves most Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down
an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and
the dread the languor and the ferocity the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles
toward a mind-bending conclusion. In The Need Helen Phillips has created a subversive
speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing arresting prose and gorgeous haunting
imagery. Helen Phillips has been anointed as one of the most exciting fiction writers working
today and The Need is a glorious celebration of the bizarre and beautiful nature of our
everyday lives.
