The Armchair Traveller: Irish Author Karen Perry on Her Favourite Escapist Reads - The Gloss Magazine

The Armchair Traveller: Irish Author Karen Perry on Her Favourite Escapist Reads

Karen Perry, a Dublin-based bestselling author, is known for her thrillers including Girl Unknown, Only We Know and The Boy That Never Was …

Let’s face it, we all need a holiday. And I’ll be honest here – the reason I started reading Rumaan Alam’s utterly brilliant book Leave The World Behind is because of the promise inherent in the title of some kind of holiday to get away from it all. That’s certainly how the book starts out with a middle class family from New York setting off for a week’s break in a swanky rental on Long Island. Alam is so good at the details – even a shopping trip for groceries has you lulled into believing that you are right there on Long Island in the heat, filling up the fridge before diving into the pool. But then things veer off in a very different direction when the wealthy owners of the house turn up without warning, bringing tales of a blackout sweeping New York, TV stations down, all internet and phone services cut off. The tension ratchets up as the two families uneasily occupy the house alongside each other while panicking about what’s happening out in the world. Ironically, what I had expected to be a nice holiday escape turned out to be a story about a world crisis and the panic that ensues. Prescient and completely gripping.

Prior to the first lockdown, I spent six months in France with my family on a sabbatical. An amazing experience, it was the inspiration for my latest novel Stranger, which is partially set in a village deep in the heart of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the place we called home for those months. The pandemic put an end to our plans to return, so in order to get my French fix, I turned to one of my favourite writers, Daphne du Maurier, and her novel The Scapegoat which tells the story of an Englishman, John, who meets his double while travelling through France. The Scapegoat showcases the considerable heft of Du Maurier’s talent, from masterful plotting to brilliant characterisation, with a pervasive Gothic atmosphere, all told in her distinctive direct style. And it’s set in France!

While part of me wants to escape from it all, the other part longs for a return to normality. I’m getting a little tired of all this quiet living. I miss the company of other people. I want laughter and conversation and noise. I want the mess of human behaviour in all its humour and folly. Which is why I have been re-reading Tom Wolfe’s bombastic The Bonfire Of The Vanities. Often referred to as the quintessential novel of the 1980’s, it’s packed full of action, drama and tension (and parties). It clamours with life and crackles with humour, and incidentally, has the best description of a hangover I have ever read.

‘They went through the doorway, into the apartment’s entry gallery. Such voices! Such delight! Such laughter! Sherman faced catastrophe in his career, catastrophe in his marriage – and the police were circling – and yet the hive – the hive! – the hive! – the sonic waves of the hive made his very innards vibrate.’

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get my party gear on and join the hive, cocktail in hand, my innards once more vibrating with excitement.

Karen Perry’s new psychological thriller Stranger is the story of a French exchange student staying with an Irish family. It is published by Michael Joseph and is available now.

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