Katherine Carlyle: A Novel

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In vitro fertilization is the trigger for a young woman whose identity crisis and misguided fantasies take her on a mysterious journey to the end of the world Katherine Carlye is an IVF baby. Stored as a frozen embryo for eight years, she is then implanted in her mother and given life. By the age of nineteen, Katherine has lost her mother to cancer, and feels her father to be an increasingly distant figure. Instead of going to college, she disappears, telling no one where she has gone. What begins as an attempt to punish her father for his absence gradually becomes a testing ground of his love for her, a coming-to-terms with the death of her mother, and finally the mise-en-sc ne for a courageous leap to true empowerment. Written in the beautifully spare, lucid, and cinematic prose Thomson is known for, and powered by his natural gift for storytelling, Katherine Carlyle uses the modern techniques of IVF to throw new light on the myth of origins. It is a profound and moving novel about who we are, and how we are loved.

Reviews

**Named a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Big Indie Book of Fall 2015**

"Elegant...[with] poised and crystalline prose that piles lovely sentence atop lovely sentence...a story told with authority about a bold woman."The New york Times Book Review

Thomson is a hypnotic writer. His prose is precise and controlled, his images intriguingly dreamlike. Katherine Carlyle leaves a sharp, visceral afterimage in its wake; much of its staying power lies in Thomsons ability to send the readers imagination beyond its final page. Elle

The title character of this lean, well-paced novel is a nineteen-year-old, born via in-vitro fertilization, who is haunted by the idea that she spent eight years as a frozen embryo prior to her birthShe is a novice in the ways of the world and her increasingly reckless behavior can be tiresome, but Thomson engineers a startling climax.The New Yorker

In his long career, novelist Rupert Thomson has been compared to everyone from Franz Kafka to Oliver SacksBut this one is different. The inspiration for "Katherine Carlyle" comes from a deeply personal place for Thomson: the conception of his daughterThomson brings Katherine authenticity and empathy on her wild journey north. Minnesota Public Radio's "All Things Considered"

[In Katherine Carlyle] Thomsons delivery is swift on the page: fluid, visual, deft as a thriller writers. The result is charismatic: youre gripped exactly as you would be by a movie. Youre racing along on the shoulder of the motorcyclist, youre listening to the music spill out of the club, youre watching the cigarette buttarc down from the terrace to the cobbles in a shower of sparks. At the same time, something about the way Thomson paces the action, his phrasing and timing, his management of scale and grain how close you are to events,how far away, how metaphorical they might be at one time, how literal atanother lets you know that inKatherine Carlyleyoure getting something more than a thriller[Its] shocking, emotionally draining and satisfying all at once."The Guardian

Rupert Thomsons haunting family tale[is] a contemporary masterpiece. Robert McCrum, The Guardian

The only certainty about a newRupert Thomsonnovel besides the clear, elegant prose is that it will defy the expectations of his readersIt is a bold choice for Thomson, a man whos just turned 60, to write so intimately in the voice of a 19-year-old woman, but Katherine is a wholly compelling character, one who remains curiously elusive despite her apparent candourThomson has created a novel that resists easy categories, but remains with the reader long after the last page, asking profound questions about the way we choose to live and connect with others. The Observer

What links each of Thomsons books are bouts of supreme strangeness and profound disquiet, and the authors relentlessly cool, controlled, immaculate prose Thomson charges [Katherine Carlyle] with such high-powered emotional intensity that it is impossible to put down This is a stunning, thought-provoking novel; we should read it and then read everything else by this very fine writer. Minneapolis Star Tribune

"From Rome to Berlin to the frozen wastes of northern Russia, Katherine meets kind and cruel strangers, relies on her wits and overcomes considerable odds. This hauntingly beautiful and deeply immersive novel has the reader rooting for its main character every step of the way." Minneapolis Star Tribune, **Holiday Books Guide Selection**

Katherine Carlyle spare, clean, almost sterile and yet still compulsively readable is startling and refreshing in its originality, framing a young womans search for identity in the wake of tragedy in a compelling and unusual wayStill, after [Thomson] draws us skillfully into Katherines mysterious quest, he renders us unable to look away. Miami Herald


In some ways a coming-of-age story, and in others an origin story (not just of Carlyle, but of all of us), this lovely, haunting novel left us thinking for a long time about where we came from, what it means, and how it made us who we are. The L Magazine

Katherine Carlyle is mesmerizing in all senses of the word Thomsons prose is gracefully crafted; its a transfixing, intriguing adventure. New York Daily News


In Thomsons latest novel, a young woman conceived through IVF has an identity crisis, and her misguided fantasies take her on a mysterious journey to the end of the world. Jonathan Lethem calls Thomson so undervalued, such a pure novelist. Publishers Weekly


Ostensibly a journey in search of solitude, Kits increasingly reckless path lays bare the truth about her flight, that the act of running away may actually be a plea for being found. Thomsons simply stated prose is made richer by the flaws of Kits character, resulting in an honest and worthy storyof self-discovery. Booklist

Katherine's quest is an understandable reaction to a digital world that's both intrusive and disconnected. Kirkus Reviews

This is a novel with panache. Library Journal

Rupert Thomson has over the past three decades produced a wildly heterogeneous troupe of narrators to inhabit the titillating, sometimes gothic dreamworlds of his fiction In Katherine CarlyleThomson creates a remarkably true-feeling modern teenage girl, an accomplishment in itself, then goes one step further in having her strike an incongruously detached, mature tone Thomson captures the magnetism between strangers, the erosion of mores and the amplification of chance that one finds when travelling alone more so, presumably, when one is also a precocious, good-looking girl. Times Literary Supplement

Katherines willingness to follow whatever leads her environment throws at herhas just such an air of surreal reverie, propelled forward by the spare, visual precision of the prose. Thomsons willingness to pursue this kind of existential narrativemakes him feel a refreshingly unEnglish writer [B]eneath the drifting surface of Katherines journey, through concrete Berlin underpasses and bleak northern hotel rooms, there emerges a tight and compelling narrative. It is a striking literary performance, memorably combining dream and thriller. The Sunday Times

Katherine Carlyleis an IVF thriller about the relationships between parents and their children, set across Rome, Berlin and Russia. Pimps, prostitutes, discarded identities, late-night rendezvous all of them feature in this book. It sounds like madness but in the hands of Rupert Thomson, it reads like a dreamThomson has a knack of writing intriguing novels with strange dilemmas[and] this novel should give him the recognition he much deserves. The Times

As moodily charged as an impending weather system, and suffused with the same indistinct sense of threat, this is a sometimes dark but ultimately redemptive tale, whose dreamlike motifs, coincidences and chance encounters are of a piece with the feeling of unreality besetting its damaged heroineUnfolding in the acclaimed Thomsons characteristically lucid and sensuous prose, this entirely unsentimental novel is as absorbing as it is affecting. The Daily Mail

Rupert Thomsons gift for description is impressive, and this is an effective study of madness infused with travelogue. Mail on Sunday

Katherines story, a profound, unnerving meditation on love and existence, is the canvas to which Thomson applies colour and beauty[B]rilliant. The Independent

Thomson is an original storyteller who with each new novel offers his readers something bracingly or daringly differentWhat binds them all Katherine Carlyleincluded is Thomsons precise and deceptively simple prose, together with his ability to jolt, unsettle and move the reader with gothic drama, strange antics and moments of carefully calibrated tension. [Katherine Carlyle] is a triumph...[and] has all the mystery and impetus of a good spy novel. The National

Although the theme of personal discovery is a common one, never before has it been tackled from the unique perspective offered in Rupert Thomsons beautifully written novel, Katherine CarlyleHighly original, somber and breathtakingly cinematicThomson has truly outdone himself with this fascinating work. Bookreporter

[A] sprawling, emotionally rich work. Vol. 1 Brooklyn

A strange story in a good way with gorgeous writing and an intriguing story-line. Entertainment Realm


[B]reathtaking and utterly original. Read It Forward

[A] profound and moving novel. Booktrib

Thomsons novels tend to be dark and are often concerned with people trying to escape. This one is no exceptionan interesting read. The Modern Novel

Rupert Thomson is so undervalued, such a pure novelist. He explores what interests him in the way that I most admire. Hes not trying to demonstrate its relevancy or extend his own argument. Instead, each novel is etched into reality by his curiosity. Jonathan Lethem, Hopes&Fears

Katherine Carlyle left me stunned and amazed. Thomsons ability to create a world that feels entirely original and untouched by any other mind is at full strength in this strange and haunting book. The story proceeds with perfect logic from mystery to mystery, and takes the reader with it, unable to stop reading or guess where it will go next. The title character is utterly convincing, and her quest expresses with great clarity and power the strangeness of her origins. Its a masterpiece. Philip Pullman, author of the best-selling His Dark Materials trilogy

Written with the pace, verve, and detail of a spy novel, sleek and oddly honest, this is the fascinating story of Katherine Carlyle who mysteriously decides that instead of university and a privileged life she will erase her identity and much of her emotions and go untraceably to the most remote settlement of the Russian north. She is not seeking love. She is determined to have abandoned it. James Salter, author of All That Is

Smart, stylish, inventive, and always entertaining, Rupert Thomson displays enormous range as a novelist. His prose is consistently sharp, his ideas consistently intriguing. I would read anything that Rupert Thomson wrote.Lionel Shriver, best-selling author of Big Brother and We Need to Talk About Kevin

Rupert Thomsons twilight worlds have long enchanted many readers, and this road trip through a snow dome of mesmeric hallucinations is Thomson at his best. Richard Flanagan, author of the Man Booker Prizewinning The Narrow Road to the Deep North

If the mind best comprehends the heart through metaphor, what new ways of imagining ourselves and our loves are offered by technologies earlier undreamt of This is the question Rupert Thomson seeks to answer in this stealthy, intelligent, surreptitiously affective novel. With a narrative that moves from the sophisticated milieux of Rome and Berlin to the startling lower reaches of the Arctic Circle, delivered in prose that is spare, cinematic and masterfully controlled, Katherine Carlyle is at once seductively contemporary and suggestively fable-like: Frozen for grown-ups. Rebecca Mead, author of My Life in Middlemarch

This riveting and visionary story haunted me long after I finished the last page. Katherine Carlyle is an extraordinary novel. Deborah Moggach, best-selling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The language is beautiful [I]t is difficult not to fall under the spell of Katherine Carlyle and the book that shares her name. Roughshots

Author Bio

Rupert Thomson is the author of nine highly acclaimed novels, including Secrecy; The Insult, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and selected by David Bowie as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time; The Book of Revelation, which was made into a feature film by Ana Kokkinos; and Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award. His memoir, This Party's Got to Stop, was named Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He lives in London.