About the Author

Lara Williams is the author of A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, which was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Edinburgh First Book Award, and the Saboteur Awards, and longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She is also the author of Supper Club, which won the Guardian "Not the Booker" Prize and was named as a Book of the Year 2019 by TIME and Vogue. Lara Williams lives in Manchester and is a contributor to the Guardian, Independent, Times Literary Supplement, Vice, Dazed, and others.

Reviews

A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by The Millions - A Best Book to Read in April by Town & Country and The AV Club - One of 2022's Best Beach Reads by Southern Living "Read if you like: Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, artificial flavors, avoidant behavior, wondering what a 'lifestyle' is and whether you have one." --Molly Young, The New York Times

"Utterly sharp, slyly humorous, and at times devastating in its courageous attempts to make sense of extreme loneliness. The Odyssey is a wildly original dystopian satire about the desire and struggle to forge human connection and the craving for some semblance of progress and order when one's life has fallen apart. Startlingly unique and beautifully written." --Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face

"Deliciously unpredictable . . . an entertaining examination of work, the lengths we go to feel a sense of belonging, and how difficult it can be to navigate the ever-shifting seas of friendship and love . . . I have never read anything like this, which is a testament to Lara Williams's craft, as well as her fearlessness in diving into the more absurd, cringeworthy, and downright uncomfortable aspects of life." --Mateo Askaripour, author of Black Buck

"This strange, beautiful cruise liner of a book interweaves a biting sendup of corporate, work, and wellness culture with an astute exploration of the emotional icebergs that lie below its protagonist's placid exterior . . . deeply unsettling and unexpectedly moving." --Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State

"Tantalizing. . . . Readers who enjoy Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate this surreal trip through a troubled woman's psyche." --Booklist

"Takes the reader on a memorable journey." --Kirkus Reviews

"Vivid and compulsive . . . an addictive and intriguingly dark (if not profound) take on an ancient narrative." --The New Statesman

"Big news: We already found your summer 2022 reading pick." --Cosmopolitan "Couldn't stop reading . . . Original and intriguing, I'll be digesting this one for a while." --Laura Harvey, Copper Dog Books (MA) "An intriguing twist on the epic voyage." --Margo Grimm Eule, East City Bookshop (DC) "An unflinching and razor-sharp satire exploring consumerism and the monotonous life of a disturbed and directionless woman working aboard a cruise ship. The Odyssey is a bleak and biting ride, with pitch-black humor and a progressively off-kilter protagonist. Reading it is a disorienting experience, with a hallucinogenic feel that becomes increasingly sobering as Ingrid nears closer and closer to her home: both on land, and within herself. Absolutely brilliant." --Madison Gallup, Northshire Bookstore (VT) "The Odyssey is a rueful antiheroine's journey full of dynamic absurdity that left me shell-shocked and clamoring for a higher page count. Supper Club catapulted Williams to the top of my (very short) must-read list and The Odyssey cements her place in the echelon. With its propulsive plot and macabre humor, the book is a fantastic send-up (takedown?) of modern life's knack of leaving us always craving more, more, more. If she keeps this up, I will follow Williams into the bowels of hell. Possibly lower." --Wesley Minter, Third Place Books (WA) "I love when writers like Lara Williams write an absurd novel like this, making you believe in this little world as if it made sense. . . . I was completely on board from the first page right up when she drops me off on the last." --Emily Sperber, Third Place Books (WA) "Perceptive, enigmatic and thought-provoking--I couldn't put it down. Wonderful!" --Amelia Horgan, author of Lost in Work "This subversive satire on consumer capitalism and the millennial search for meaning is darkly comic existential fiction at its best." --Culture Whisper (UK) "A fever dream . . . Williams succeeds in satirising the seemingly unmockable: the overwhelming absurdities of modern life." --Literary Review (UK)