The Wildelings - by Lisa Harding

About the Book

"Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes - and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival. Now eighteen, the two have come to Wilde - an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends. But then Mark enters the picture. A philosophy student a few years older than them, he has strange and compelling ideas about self-discovery. When Linda and Mark start dating, Jessica is disturbed by the change in her friend - and how quickly she seems to have fallen under the charismatic man's control. It turns out that Mark's influence is not limited to Linda alone; and Jessica soon finds out that her whole group of friends are keeping secrets for him...and it will culminate in ways that will change their lives forever. Years later, Jessica is still grappling with her guilt over what happened at Wilde. And when Mark resurfaces to write his version of events, she knows she owes it to herself - and Linda - to set the record straight once and for all."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Named one of the best books of spring by Harper's BAZAAR and one of the best of the year by The Economist!

A vivid and compulsive story of obsession, control and guilt, set in Nineties Dublin - perfect for fans of dark academia and Donna Tartt's The Secret History

Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes - and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival. Now eighteen, the two have come to Wilde - an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends.

But then Mark enters the picture. A philosophy student a few years older than them, he has strange and compelling ideas about self-discovery. When Linda and Mark start dating, Jessica is disturbed by the change in her friend - and how quickly she seems to have fallen under the charismatic man's control.

It turns out that Mark's influence is not limited to Linda alone; and Jessica soon finds out that her whole group of friends are keeping secrets for him...and it will culminate in ways that will change their lives forever. Years later, Jessica is still grappling with her guilt over what happened at Wilde. And when Mark resurfaces to write his version of events, she knows she owes it to herself - and Linda - to set the record straight once and for all.

Review Quotes

"With echoes of Donna Tartt's "The Secret History"....This is dark academia at its most gripping." -- The Economist

"Arrives to fill the Secret History-shaped hole in your lives ... Gloriously entertaining." -- The Observer

"Dark, blistering and full of theatrics, The Wildelings is an electric exploration of control, guilt, and one young woman's fight to free herself. I was hooked from the very start."
-- Rachel Joyce, New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"Lisa Harding will haunt readers with the psychological drama of The Wildelings, a compulsively readable novel in which a woman looks back on her college days and a long-lost friendship....shocking, electric, impossible to turn from. With this atmospheric roller coaster of a novel, Harding offers pulsing intensity, gut-wrenching emotional upheaval, and high drama in every sense." -- Shelf Awareness

"A searing exploration into our deepest desires and insecurities. I adored it." -- Heather Darwent, bestselling author of The Things We Do To Our Friends

"Lisa Harding's The Wildelings, in the tradition of dark academia, shocks with the cruelties of belonging, the seductive power wielded in friendships, the impulse to control and subjugate. Impeccably paced, dark and disturbingly honest, The Wildelings reveals campus life as theatre of cruelty; but the real stagecraft lies in Harding's ability to excavate the still beating heart of a shared past and bonds beneath those brutalities. Riveting, addictive and, ultimately, beautifully human." -- Una Mannion, author of Tell Me What I Am and A Crooked Tree

"With pitch pure dialogue, and a plot that weaves in and around the theatre until the edges of reality blur, Lisa Harding presents us with a psychologically gripping story about personal manipulation and the imbalance of power in intimate relationships. A powerful performance." -- Jane Urquhart, award-winning author of In Winter I Get Up at Night

"The Wildelings is a shiver-inducing delight. I found myself reading when I should have been doing a million other things, unable to tear myself away from these bewitching characters, Harding's beautiful prose, and the prickly suspicion that a dark surprise was waiting for me on every page." -- Lauren Grodstein, author of A Dog in Georgia and We Must Not Think of Ourselves