The Rapture: Liz Jensen
In a merciless summer of biblical heat and destructive winds, Gabrielle Fox’s main concern is a personal one: to rebuild her career as a psychologist after a shattering car accident. But when she is assigned Bethany Krall, one of the most dangerous teenagers in the country, she begins to fear she has made a terrible mistake. Raised on a diet of evangelistic hellfire, Bethany is violent, delusional, cruelly intuitive and insistent that she can foresee natural disasters – a claim which Gabrielle interprets as a symptom of doomsday delusion. But when catastrophes begin to occur on the very dates Bethany has predicted, and a brilliant, gentle physicist enters the equation, the apocalyptic puzzle intensifies and the stakes multiply. Is the self-proclaimed Nostradamus of the psych ward the ultimate manipulator, or could she be the harbinger of imminent global cataclysm on a scale never seen before? And what can love mean in ‘interesting times’? A haunting story of human passion and burning faith set against an adventure of tectonic proportions, “The Rapture” is an electrifying psychological thriller that explores the dark extremes of mankind’s self-destruction in a world on the brink.
The Author
Liz Jensen is the author of Egg Dancing (longlisted for the Orange Prize), Ark Baby (shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize), The Paper Eater, War Crimes for the Home (longlisted for the Orange Prize), The Ninth Life of Louis Drax and My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time. She divides her time between Copenhagen and London.
The Critics
‘Paced like a thriller with elements of sci-fi, the supernatural and old-fashioned romance this is a highly original yarn with a serious undertow…genuinely thought provoking and disturbing.’
“Jensen rather puts me in mind of Margaret Atwood. There’s the same ability to keep the emotional observations sharp but sophisticated, and the same comic flouting of femininity… A cracking good read. Five-stars”
“A compelling journey of the imagination…vivid…an absorbing embodiment and exploration of our fears about climate change”.
“A fast-paced plot buoyed by a wealth of paranormal intrigue… Jensen skirts the moral boundaries without shrillness, exposing humanity as less wicked than willfully myopic.
`A cracking good read *****’, Daily Telegraph
`A masterclass on how to write an engaging thriller … You’ll be gripped’, The Guardian
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