A taut, philosophical mind-bender from the bestselling author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things.
We don't get visitors. Not out here. We never have.
Junior and Hen are a quiet married couple. They live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with surprising news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm...very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Hen won't have a chance to miss him at all, because she won't be left alone-not even for a moment. Hen will have company. Familiar company.
Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale. Iain Reid has written five books, including the New York Times bestselling novel I'm Thinking of Ending Things, which has been translated into more than twenty languages and was adapted into a Netflix film by Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman. His second novel, Foe, was also adapted to film, starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. His third novel, We Spread, was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award. Praise for Foe
"Foe reads like a house on fire, and is almost impossible not to finish in one sitting...an otherworldly hothouse of introversion and fantasy."
"Reid is at it again, exploiting readers with plot twists, narrative unease, and explosive conclusions in his second novel . . . [he] has the rare ability to make readers both uncomfortable and engaged, and this drama will surely send them back to the beginning pages to track the clues he left to the surprise ending." "Reid is a master storyteller with a knack for absorbing prose. Most of the action takes place in the microcosm of the couple's house, but Reid writes about the relationship so well that it becomes a universe full of questions and possibilities."
"From the opening page, you'll have an uneasy feeling as you settle in to Iain's Reid's brilliant new novel, Foe. . . . A masterful and breathtakingly unique read. I can't stop thinking about it." "Reid draws his suspense from the same places where we find it in our lives: not knowing what's going to happen next, not truly knowing the people we love, and not even really knowing ourselves." "I'm not sure that humans have hackles, but something was creeping up my spine as I read this book, and I welcomed the shivers of shock and delight. A mind-bending and genre-defying work of genius." "Reid proves once again that he is a master of atmosphere and suspense. Readers won't be able to put this one down." "Reid builds to a deeply unsettling climax. As much a surgical dissection of what makes a marriage as an expertly paced, sparsely detailed psychological thriller, this is one to read with the lights on." "[Foe] is a thought-provoking thriller, the sort of book whose secrets hover just beneath the surface awaiting discovery." "Spare, consuming, unforgettable. Foe is a dark arrow from a truly original mind. Page by eerie page, Iain Reid pulls the known world out from under you, and leaves you trapped inside a marriage's most haunting question: can I be replaced? This is a book that seeps into your bloodstream––and crowns Iain Reid the king of deadpan, philosophical horror."
"Foe . . . [is] one of the most unsettling novels of the year." "A tale of implacably mounting peril that feels all the more terrifying for being told in such a quiet, elegantly stripped-down voice. Iain Reid knows how to do 'ominous' as well as anyone I've ever read." "Reid is expert at evoking a sense of dread from the most
