The Anniversary - by Stephanie Bishop (Paperback)

About the Book

"Ascendant novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Patrick is older than J.B., formerly her professor, now a film director and cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him; now it may overshadow his. For days they sail in the sun, nothing but dark water all around them. Then a storm hits and Patrick falls from the ship. J.B. is left alone as the search for what happened to Patrick--and the truth about their marriage--begins."--

Book Synopsis

For fans of Lisa Halliday and Susan Choi, The Anniversary is a simmering page-turner about an ascendant writer, the unresolved death of her husband, and what it takes to emerge on her own

Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, film director, and cult figure, Patrick is much older than J.B.. When they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his.

For days they sail in the sun, nothing but dark water all around them. Then a storm hits and Patrick falls from the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick - and the truth about their marriage - begins.

Propulsive and fiercely intelligent, The Anniversary is exquisitely written with a swift and addictive plot. It's a novel that asks: how legible, in the mind of the writer, is the line between reality and plot? How do we refuse the people we desire? And what is the cost, to ourselves, to others and to our art, if we don't?

Review Quotes

Longlisted for the Stella Prize 2024

A New York Times Editor's Choice

"Eventful and atmospheric....deliciously complex...In its latter half, "The Anniversary" grows into a feminist commentary on the nature of mysteries and marriages...The Anniversary is similar to contemporary books like Meg Wolitzer's The Wife and Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in the ways it tackles gender and power, but it offers the pleasures of the Gothic novel too -- houses and relationships full of secrets, and a narrator with an uncertain grasp on reality." -- New York Times Book Review

"Beguiling and incisive in equal measure." -- Publishers Weekly

"Bishop expertly dissects the innards of a seesaw relationship and the inequities women must battle. The bristling arguments crackle brilliantly. In the end, 'did she or did she not' is almost beside the point. It's the marriage that keeps us engaged." -- Booklist

"If you are making a list for summer reading, you can't do much better than Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary... [a] smart, entertaining novel." -- ArtsFuse

"Elegant and highly accomplished... Dangerously readable... If only all novels were this engaging and this perceptive about human nature." -- The Guardian (UK)

"A psychologically layered landscape that simultaneously holds in suspension and keeps in play the crime-genre structure of the book... Bishop honours the feminist spin she puts on the crime genre." -- Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"A stylish read you won't be able to put down." -- Times (UK)

"Impossible to put down... Excellent." -- Daily Mail (UK)

"This novel goes beyond suspense, tackling gender power imbalances and slipping into metafiction... A compulsive yet redemptive book layered with nuances." -- Financial Times (UK)

"The Anniversary is bejewelled with lovely moments and undeniably exquisite writing, a fine education about desire...An admirable and ambitious investigation into some troublesome contemporary things about men and women and the forces of desire, not just sexual but creative desire." -- Sydney Morning Herald (AU)

"The Anniversary is a haunting mystery, sophisticated, subtle and subversive. Bishop considers the discipline, scrupulous and otherwise, required to make a marriage, as well as to make art, capturing the longing and the disappointment inherent in the attempt to make one's self known to others." -- Susanna Moore, author of In the Cut

"Absolutely addictive. When reading The Anniversary, I found myself forgetting who I am or where I was. Only art that exudes brilliance can conjure this state." -- Szilvia Molnar, author of The Nursery

"The Anniversary is seductive, mysterious, and fiercely intelligent. Bishop peels back, with great insight and artistry, layer after layer of her character's psyche, laying bare the singular pleasures and secret resentments at the center of any marriage, any life. This is a book to be savored for its elegant sentences and psychological depth, but you'll be hard-pressed not to devour it in a few voracious sittings." -- Sara Freeman, author of Tides

"Bracing and mesmeric, with bursts of insight and dark descents into secrecy and unknowing, The Anniversary charts a course through the unruly landscape of self-expression and self-deception, exploring the perils of a woman's power in art and marriage. I was captivated as much by its truths as by its treatment of deceit in fiction and life." -- Charmaine Craig, author of My Nemesis

"Tense, elegant, sensuous." -- Niamh Campbell, author of We Were Young

"In The Anniversary Stephanie Bishop expertly and mercilessly builds an atmosphere of intense uncertainty and threat. You won't want to put it down." -- Chris Power, author of Mothers

"The dread that slowly creeps into your bones while reading The Anniversary is difficult to shake off, yet you cannot look away. I revelled in every bit of this astute, compelling, psychological novel." -- Virginia Feito, author of Mrs March

"Such a stylish, incisive novel, tight with suspense and powerful insight. I loved it and will be recommending it far and wide." -- Megan Hunter, author of The Harpy

"Exquisite, profound, and utterly exhilarating: The Anniversary is a stunning achievement." -- Mark Brandi, author of Wimmera

"I absolutely loved The Anniversary, a literary thriller that is simultaneously addictive, compelling, and deeply clever." --Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Everyone is Still Alive

"Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary is literature at its very, very best -- her talent shimmers off every single page, her prose is exquisite and her observations about the complexities and competitiveness of intimate relationships, the chaos of the human condition and the inexorable tension between love, family, creativity and art-making are second to none. This novel is an absolute triumph in every respect." -- Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of My Body Keeps Your Secrets

"Very addictive and so smart - a fever dream about a writer getting everything they want and living out all their nightmares at the same time." -- Rebecca May Johnson, author of Small Fires

"Nothing in this exquisitely twisted tale is quite what it seems. But though the cool, sharp, disenchanted narrator is not to be trusted, one thing about her is for real - her ability to say things so witty and so pungently true I kept turning down pages to mark them. If I kept a commonplace book I would have filled it with lines from this compelling novel about creativity and its discontents." -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of The Pike

About the Author

Stephanie Bishop was recently appointed professor in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her criticism and fiction have appeared in the London Review of Books, the TLS, and the Sydney Review of Books. She is the author of Man Out of Time and The Other Side of the World, a Literary Fiction Book of the Year in the Australian Book Industry Awards 2016 and winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Writing 2015. It was also shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Indie Book Awards and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and longlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize.