The orange room

Price, Rosie

£18.99

Rhianne’s art degree at one of the best schools in London is cut short by the predatory attentions of a tutor, who destroys her confidence in the most insidious way. She retreats home to the west country, where, with the support of her dad Dominic and step-mum Melissa, she takes a job at a small hotel while she tries to figure out what next. That turns out to be a relationship with a charismatic young chef named Callum, which starts in the adrenalin-fuelled buzz of the kitchen and soon becomes much darker. It will test Rhianne and her loving family to their limits, until through her art, she manages to find a way back.

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Publish Date: 04/07/2024

Description

‘Beautifully observed, deeply humane’ Marina Kemp

Can we live fully when we are too afraid to be seen? Rhianne is about to find out

Rhianne expresses her inner world through line and colour. This summer, though, back home in the west country, she is seeking distraction in heat and noise. Art school in London has ripped away her confidence and sense of safety: better for now to be swept along by the hotel kitchen where she’s working, where the pressure is high and the dangers are more obvious. Sharp knives. Hot plates. Little time to think.

Her dad, Dominic, is concerned for Rhianne but relieved to have her close. Her step-mum, Melissa, is on alert, though trying to tread carefully. But then there’s Callum, just across the chef’s pass, with his controlled manner and intent gaze. There’s attraction. There’s everything that comes next.

‘The deliberate diminishing of a partner, the dimming of their inner light, is something so many of us have either experienced or witnessed in a friend – and Price reveals it, here, with tender care and quietly devastating accuracy’ Observer

Praise for What Red Was:
‘One of the most powerful debuts you’ll ever read’ Stylist
‘Scorching and original’ Sunday Times
‘An urgent story told beautifully’ – Dolly Alderton

Additional information

Weight 369 g
Dimensions 222 × 143 × 25 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

256

Language

English

Edition

Hardback original

Dewey

823.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K