Three - by Ann Quin (Paperback)

About the Book

"S has disappeared from Ruth and Leonard's home in Brighton. Suicide is suspected. The couple, who had been spying on their young lodger since before the trouble, begin to pour over her diary, her audio recordings and her movies - only to discover that she had been spying on them with even greater intensity. As this disturbing, highly charged act of reciprocal voyeurism comes to light, and as the couple's fascination with S comes to dominate their already flawed marriage, what emerges is an unnerving and absorbing portrait of the taboos, emotional and sexual, that broke behind the closed doors of 1950s British life."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

S has disappeared from Ruth and Leonard's home in Brighton. Suicide is suspected. The couple, who had been spying on their young lodger since before the trouble, begin to pour over her diary, her audio recordings and her movies - only to discover that she had been spying on them with even greater intensity. As this disturbing, highly charged act of reciprocal voyeurism comes to light, and as the couple's fascination with S comes to dominate their already flawed marriage, what emerges is an unnerving and absorbing portrait of the taboos, emotional and sexual, that broke behind the closed doors of 1950s British life.

Review Quotes

"A vivid, supple prose flashing with insights." ⁠--Daniel Stern, The New York Times Book Review

"After her death in 1973 at only 37, Ann Quin's star first dipped beneath the horizon, disappearing from view entirely, before rising slowly but persistently, to the point that it's now attaining the septentrional heights it always merited. I suspect that she'll eventually be viewed, alongside BS Johnson and Alexander Trocchi, as one of the few mid-century British novelists who actually, in the long term, matter." ⁠--Tom McCarthy

Praise for The Unmapped Country

"One of our greatest ever novelists." ⁠--Lee Rourke, The Guardian

"Too little has been written about Brightonian novelist Ann Quin since her death."⁠--Juliet Jacques, The New Statesman

"Despite ongoing rumours of a B.S. Johnson revival, I feel our attention could be more usefully directed towards Ann Quin." ⁠--Stewart Home, in 69 Things to do with a Dead Princess

"Quin's prose never falters; it's stunning." ⁠--Caitlin Youngquist, The Paris Review

"The most naturally and delicately gifted novelist of her generation." ⁠--The Scotsman

"A working-class voice from England quite unlike any other." ⁠--Giles Gordon

"Quin understood she was on to something new and she took herself seriously, in the right way; she had a serious sense of her literary purpose." ⁠--Deborah Levy

"Rare enough is a book that begins by stating its intention--rarer still one that proceeds to do seemingly everything it can to avoid following the path its intention has laid." ⁠--Danielle Dutton

"Quin was a writer ahead of her time; 30 years later, [her writing] still feels fresh and exciting." ⁠--Publishers Weekly

"Quin works over a small area with the finest of tools... every page, every word gives evidence of her care and workmanship." ⁠--New York Times

"Vividly intense and almost palpably immediate."⁠-- Irish Times

"Quin uses carefully crafted imagery to stimulate the reader's subconscious." ⁠--Booklist

"Quin tosses out hefty dashes of mordant humor and caustic wit." ⁠--Library Journal

About the Author

Ann Quin (1936-1973) was a working-class writer from Brighton, England. She was at the forefront of British experimentalism in the 1960s along with BS Johnson and Alan Burns. Prior to her death in 1973, she published four novels: Berg (1964), Three (1966), Passages (1969) and Tripticks (1972). A collection of short stories and fragments, The Unmapped Country (edited by Jennifer Hodgson), was published by And Other Stories in 2018. Quin's novel Berg was republished by And Other Stories in 2019, followed by Three in 2020.