Sofka Zinovieff Talks About Her Thought-Provoking Novel


Putney - The moral lines we tread, the price of love and notions of consent


Award-winning author Sofka Zinovieff talks about her bold, thought-provoking novel, Putney, about the moral lines we tread, the price of love and notions of consent at Bloomsbury HQ on 9 July.

You can watch this unique behind-the-scenes event for free online on Bloomsbury Publishing's Facebook page from 1pm on the day.

It is the 1970s and Ralph, an up-and-coming composer, is visiting Edmund Greenslay at his riverside home in Putney to discuss a collaboration. Through the house's colourful rooms and unruly garden flits nine-year-old Daphne – dark, teasing, slippery as mercury, more sprite than boy or girl. From the moment their worlds collide, Ralph is consumed by an obsession to make Daphne his.

But Ralph is twenty-five and Daphne is only a child, and even in the bohemian abandon of 1970s London their fast-burgeoning relationship must be kept a secret. It is not until years later that Daphne is forced to confront the truth of her own childhood – and an act of violence that has lain hidden for decades.

Putney is a bold, thought-provoking novel about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the memories that play themselves out again and again, like snatches of song.

Putney will be published on 12 July 2018


July 5, 2018

Related links

Peter Zinovieff - comments on the forum