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''An exceptional and staggering gift'' Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House '' Whidbey is the book I''ve been praying for'' Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things ''A brilliant, terrifying portrait of the long-tailed beast of abuse and the women united because of it . . . an extraordinary masterpiece'' Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman Birdie doesn''t know anything about Whidbey Island, only that it is far. When she strikes up a conversation with a stranger on the ferry, she finds herself telling him everything: how she was sexually assaulted as a child, how the perpetrator now walks free, how the calls and emails from him haven''t stopped, how she is on the run to Whidbey, how she wants to kill him. The stranger poses a shocking question - if she agrees, he will kill the man who hurt her, with no strings attached. She gives him a name. What follows is a complex story of three women connected through one man: Birdie Chang, a woman on the run from her past and her abuser; Mary-Beth Boyer, the abuser''s mother, who''s just found out her only son has been murdered; and Linzie King, a former reality star turned bestselling memoirist, and another victim of the same man. Whidbey is a gripping whodunnit and a searingly perceptive and astonishingly original novel that explores the long reach of violence, our flawed systems of incarceration and rehabilitation, and the pursuit of justice and revenge. Praise for T Kira Madden: ''Harrowing and beautiful . . . miraculous'' Lauren Groff, author of Matrix and Fates and Furies '' Madden has come to break your heart open '' Matt Bell, author of Scrapper ''Sad, funny, juicy and prickly with deep and secret thoughtful places'' Mary Gaitskill, author of Bad Behaviour ''Vast, arresting . . . compulsively readable'' New York Times , Editor''s Choice ...
