The Night Guest

Amazon.com ReviewAt age 75, Ruth is a widower, who lives alone in a remote beach home in Australia until one day a mysterious caretaker named Frida shows up to help around the house. But can Frida be trusted? Ruth's mind isn't what it once was, but she suspects her new friend isn't all that she seems. The Night Guest is an impressive debut--a tender novel about old age and a psychological meditation on isolation--that moves with the curious pace of a mystery. Fiona McFarlane is a new voice that reads as if she has the experience of a familiar voice, like she's been with us all along. --Kevin NguyenAn eerie aura of foreboding pervades McFarlane’s debut novel about Ruth, a lonely widow living in an isolated beach house in Australia. Ruth’s life is quiet and predictable, save for one conspicuous bit of strangeness: she is certain a tiger is prowling around her property at night. Ruth’s world is turned upside down when a stranger named Frida appears at her doorstep, claiming to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth is wary of Frida at first, but the two eventually form an uneasy alliance. As time goes by, however, Ruth begins to suspect that Frida is hiding something. She is very secretive, with a strange brother, George, who drives a local taxi. One night, Frida kills the tiger that has been tormenting Ruth. Not long after, she reveals some distressing news about her brother: he has taken all of her money and skipped town. McFarlane’s crisp, clean, lean prose is a pleasure to read, though her novel’s startling ending may leave some readers scratching their heads. --Allison Block

A mesmerizing first novel about trust, dependence, and fear, from a major new writer

Ruth is widowed, her sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This woman—Frida—claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.
     Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?
     The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane’s hypnotic first novel, is no simple tale of a crime committed and a mystery solved. This is a tale that soars above its own suspense to tell us, with exceptional grace and beauty, about ageing, love, trust, dependence, and fear; about processes of colonization; and about things (and people) in places they shouldn’t be. Here is a new writer who comes to us fully formed, working wonders with language, renewing our faith in the power of fiction to describe the mysterious workings of our minds.