Lioness
Paperback out now
You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.
From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband’s latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.
In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she’s discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.
All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?
Prizes, Reviews and Media for Lioness
PRIZES
Winner, 2024 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
REVIEWS AND ENDORSEMENTS
Lioness wins the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards: ‘an incisive exploration of wealth, power, class, female rage, and the search for authenticity… disturbing, smart and funny as hell’
‘A nuanced, scalpel-sharp and sometimes bitingly funny look at blood and money, wealth, class and privilege, and the search for authenticity. There’s also juicy social and political commentary.’ Scoop Review of Books, Best Books of 2024
Whitcoulls Top 100 Books 2024
‘A bold, exuberant and illuminating exploration of identity… already my book of the year.’ Books and Publishing
‘… the very best book of any kind – the most artful, the most able to give sheer pleasure – is Lioness.’ Newsroom, Book of the Year
‘Complex, funny, poignant, high-stakes – everything you want from a novel.’ The Spinoff Books of the Year
‘Intelligent and seductive, Lioness will elicit as much contemplation about capitalism and the failures of feminism, as it will furious page-turning.’ Primer Books of the Year
‘A belting evisceration of the upper-middle class told so vividly it would make a great movie.’ The Big Issue Australia, Top 10 Books of 2023
‘A deeply socially astute writer… one of those people who can really make the world sing… I loved it.’ Elizabeth Knox for Best Books, Radio New Zealand
‘Skilful, alluring.’ NZ Listener Books of the Year
‘I was so gripped by this astoundingly good book. It’s rich, disturbing, deep, sharp and unputdownable.’ Charlotte Wood
‘HUGELY enjoyable, intelligent, interesting, challenging, I cannot TELL you the reading pleasure it gave me.’
Marian Keyes
‘It’s like Anton Chekhov and Evelyn Waugh had a test tube baby and sent her to NZ to write.’ Robyn Malcolm
‘The nuance of Lioness’s portrait of a mid-life personal and political awakening is extremely seductive’ Financial Times
‘Lioness cocks a coolly ironic snook at the lie of modern feminism… this is an excellent novel’ The Times
‘A comic novel that asserts we are all driven by animal emotions over which we constantly struggle to assert rational control.’ David Eggleton in Landfall
‘She is not afraid to take on the uncomfortable, the off-limits… intoxicating’ The Conversation
‘A novel that has fun skewering privilege…Perkins delivers with vigour and mirth.’ Sydney Morning Herald, Book of the Day
‘Riveting and deeply perceptive… highly recommend’ Better Reading
‘Scorching… a refreshingly honest, piercing take.’ NZ Listener
‘Masterful in the way it confronts the concept of choice.’ The Spinoff
‘A bold new novel about a midlife female reckoning’ Primer
‘Few people write sharper sentences than Perkins does.’ North and South Magazine
‘A wordsmith at the height of her powers’ @thebibliofilles
‘Midlife crisis meets midlife magic in this slippery tale of shifting power.’ Marie Claire Magazine
‘Trust us, this novel is perfection.’ Glamour Magazine
MEDIA
Link to the Bloomsbury book page
Made Up Stories options the television rights to Lioness
Lioness wins Aotearoa’s top Fiction Prize
RNZ Morning Report interview on winning the NZ book award for fiction
Book awards interview with Mad Chapman at the Spinoff
ABC The Book Show interview with Claire Nichols
‘[Lioness is] brilliant, hilarious’ Virginia Fallon, Sunday Star-Times interview
North & South interview with Colin Hogg
‘Emily Perkins on Identity, Visibility and Feminism’ for The Stories Behind the Story with Better Reading
‘Razor-sharp… blistering’ interview with Mel Fulton on 3RRR’s Literati Glitterati
Nine to Noon interview with Kathryn Ryan on RNZ about Lioness and other work
‘Well worth waiting for’ A write-up of Emily’s Writers on Mondays event at Te Papa
Emily appears at the Word Christchurch Festival, August 2023
Emily discusses Lioness in a panel on The Feminine Gaze at the Jaipur International Literary Festival
Pip Adam previews books to look forward to on Radio New Zealand
