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Highlights
- A seductive modern gothic novel following a promising young filmmaker during one sun-bleached July at a famous director's summer home In the midst of an unrelenting heatwave, up-and-coming filmmaker Ruby arrives at the summer home of her idol.
- About the Author: Imogen Crimp studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge before completing an MA in modern fiction and culture at University College London, where she specialised in female modernist writers.
- 304 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Women
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Book Synopsis
A seductive modern gothic novel following a promising young filmmaker during one sun-bleached July at a famous director's summer home
In the midst of an unrelenting heatwave, up-and-coming filmmaker Ruby arrives at the summer home of her idol. Ellen, an iconoclastic feminist director known for mentoring other women, has offered Ruby a room of her own while she finishes her screenplay. Hyped as the next big thing, producers are clamoring for a "female story" mined from Ruby's trauma, and her deadline is fast approaching. When she arrives in the countryside, Ellen's house emerges like something out of a dream--grand and imposing, surrounded by sprawling gardens and a shimmering swimming pool. But tension thrums beneath the picture-perfect surface. Ellen's reputation is under fire after she's accused of appropriating a story that wasn't hers to tell. Meanwhile, Ellen's mercurial twenty-something daughter Lara lounges by the pool under the blistering sun, drawing her mother's latest houseguest towards her like a moth to a flame. Trapped between scorched empty fields and waiting for the heat to break, Ruby's aspirational summer of artistic retreat spirals into an all-consuming affair. Even the house itself begins to feel haunted, and Ruby has the unnerving sensation that she's not the first promising young woman brought here to fall under its spell. Hot to the touch, Imogen Crimp's Give Me Everything You've Got is a spellbinding fever dream, exploring the dark corners of ambition, exploitation, and what it takes to be a woman artist.Review Quotes
Past Praise for Imogen Crimp
"Imogen Crimp's enjoyable debut novel . . . is an all-too-real reminder of what it is to be a woman in your 20s, searching for who you are, trying on identities or stuck in a complicated pseudo-relationship even when you know you shouldn't be. It's a book about assessing your worth through other people's eyes--parents, friends, a lover--and about being observed: by an overprotective mother, by men on the tube, by those who assess her auditions, by classmates competing for her slot, and ultimately by the audience."
--The New York Times
"Interior and complex, but also unafraid to incorporate corporeal forces among all the others that govern us."
―Vogue
--Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss "Enthralling . . . A Rooney-esque exploration of power and class in women's relationships."
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Absorbing and gripping . . . Like Raven Leilani's Luster, Naoise Dolan's Exciting Times, or Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends."
―The Guardian "Crimp, a trained opera singer, offers absorbing, rich prose that brings dramatic scenes to life and illuminates delicate manipulations in a controlling relationship."
--Booklist
About the Author
Imogen Crimp studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge before completing an MA in modern fiction and culture at University College London, where she specialised in female modernist writers. After university, she briefly trained to be a singer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Her first novel, A Very Nice Girl, was shortlisted for the 2023 Betty Trask Prize. She lives in London.