The Worst Kind of Want: A darkly compelling story of forbidden romance set under the Italian sun

(Paperback)

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'Sharply written . . . takes readers on a thrillingly doomed journey amid the simmering heat of an Italian landscape - a captivating portrayal of self and want' Christine Mangan, author of Sunday Times bestselling TANGERINE

To cool-headed, fastidious Pricilla Messing, Italy will be an escape, a brief glimpse of freedom from a life that's starting to feel like one long decline.

Rescued from the bedside of her difficult mother, forty-something Cilla finds herself called away to Rome to keep an eye on her wayward teenage niece, Hannah. But after years of caregiving, babysitting is the last thing Cilla wants to do. Instead she throws herself into Hannah's youthful, heedless world - drinking, dancing, smoking - relishing the heady atmosphere of the Italian summer. After years of feeling used up and overlooked, Cilla feels like she's coming back to life.

But being so close to Hannah brings up complicated memories, making Cilla restless and increasingly reckless, and a dangerous flirtation with a teenage boy soon threatens to send her into a tailspin.

With the sharp-edged insight of Ottessa Moshfegh and the taut seduction of Patricia Highsmith, THE WORST KIND OF WANT is a dark, hypnotic literary noir about a woman whose unruly desires and troubled past push her to the brink of disaster.

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Praise for THE WORST KIND OF WANT:

'Masterfully constructed . . . Dazzling . . . Wonderfully surprising and a pleasure to read' LA Review of Books

'Worth obsessing over' PopSugar

'Noirish and sexy, this provocative novel explores what it's like to be a woman on the edge, and what happens when dreams are deferred for too long' Esquire

'As death-steeped, sultry, and delicious as the ancient Italian cities in which it's set' Lit Hub

'Intoxicating' Publishers Weekly

'Sets her narrator on a dark psychological journey in sweltering, sun-bleached locales . . . Darkly compelling' Booklist

Reviews

Dark, seductive . . . Noirish and sexy, this provocative novel explores what it's like to be a woman on the edge, and what happens when dreams are deferred for too long. - Esquire

A Book you have to read ASAP . . . Womanhood. Death. Sex. A risky flirtation with a teenage boy. In Jacobs's latest novel, she weaves together desire and disaster as a burned-out 40-something throws herself into the nightlife of teenagers in the heat of the Italian summer. Sounds like . . . she predicted my future - Cosmopolitan

An unconventional - and disastrous - love story, as death-steeped, sultry, and delicious as the ancient Italian cities in which it's set - Lit Hub

Liska Jacobs's work captivates in the present because it reflects the trauma of the past. . . Jacobs takes us on a wrenching journey into the catacombs - Alta

Jacobs's intoxicating second novel is a love letter to Italy and an evocative study of grief and desire . . . Jacobs's haunting portrait of one woman's transformative and, ultimately, tragic summer will linger with readers. - Publishers Weekly

Jacobs sets her narrator on a dark psychological journey in sweltering, sun-bleached locales . . . Darkly compelling - Booklist

Liska Jacobs's psychologically tense novel The Worst Kind of Want deftly explores matters of age and aging, of modernity and women, as seen through the lens of forty-something Cilla's propulsive desires. In this sharply written feminist noir, Jacobs takes readers on a thrillingly doomed journey amid the simmering heat of an Italian landscape - a captivating portrayal of self and want.

This crispy biscotti of a novel is about a producer who goes to Italy, has a scandalous relationship, and decodes not just the meaning of life but also the meaning of death, sex, dance clubs, and emoji. You'll feel indecent reading it in public - Vulture

Author Bio

Liska Jacobs' essays and short fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and The Hairpin, among other publications. She holds an MFA from the Univer sity of California, Riverside.