Mrs S

(Paperback)

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An Observer Best Debut of the Year

Oozes with erotic tension from the start Sarah Winman, author of Still Life

Sublime I loved this book Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea

Tense and taut and exhilarating Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually
Ive completely fallen for the astonishing Mrs S Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

Powerfully sensual and sublimely stylish, Mrs S is a tale of queer love that smoulders with the heat of summer.

In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of matron. Within this landscape of immense privilege, in which the girls can sense the slightest weakness in those around them, she finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body.

That is until she meets Mrs S, the headmasters wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless heatwave, the matron finds herself irresistibly drawn ever closer into Mrs Ss world and their unspoken desire blooms into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer begins to fade, both women know that a choice must be made.

K Patricks portrait of the butch experience is revelatory; exploring the contested terrain of our bodies, our desires and the constraints society places around both. Mrs S marks the arrival of a major new literary talent, unlike any other.

The intense physicality of the novels emotions and its stylish, stripped-back prose make for an arresting pairing Observer

Taut with anticipation through the final line Lillian Fishman, author of Acts of Service

An extraordinary novel Marina Kemp, author of Nightingale

Reading Mrs S is a delicious experience Rupert Thomson, author of Never Anyone But You

Reviews

The intense physicality of the novels emotions and its stylish, stripped-back prose make for an arresting pairing Hephzibah Anderson, Observer

'A story so seductively and intelligently observed that its pulse continues long after the final page. To dismantle a certain queer narrative into something else is rare and thrilling. I havent read anything quite like it. Yes. I loved it Sarah Winman, author of Still Life

Mrs S is sublime at once a languorous slow-burn and a moving reflection on queerness and what it is to be and be seen. I loved this book Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea

Tense and taut and exhilarating. A smart and sexy novel about looking and being looked at, about feeling and knowing, about the people we want and the people we want to be. I loved it Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually

Hot! Joanna Walsh, author of Vertigo

Ive completely fallen for the astonishing Mrs. S K Patricks watchful measured prose simmers, edging the reader along, asking Will I get what I want and What then Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

K Patricks breathless, splintered prose vividly communicates their subject, which is erotic longing and a desire that must remain clandestine. What a beautifully crafted and uncannily accomplished debut. What an irresistible new voice Rupert Thomson, author of Never Anyone but You

A voluptuous performance in the art of withholding, taut with anticipation through the final line Lillian Fishman, author of Acts of Service

An extraordinary novel: poignant and tough, tender and unsentimental Marina Kemp, author of Nightingale

A delicately detailed fresco of longing I love this book Zain Khalid, author of Brother Alive

Author Bio

K Patrick is a writer based in Glasgow. Their poetry has appeared in Poetry Review and Five Dials, and was shortlisted for The White Review Poetry Prize in 2021, the same year that K was shortlisted for The White Review Story Prize. In 2020, they were runner-up in the Ivan Juritz Prize and the Laura Kinsella Fellowship. Mrs S is their debut novel.