‘The year’s must read novel’ The Times

‘You think you’re invincible. You think you won’t ever miss. We need to put the fear on you. You need to surrender yourself to death before you ever begin, and accept your life as a state of grace, and then and only then will you be good enough.’

At 14, Turtle Alveston knows the use of every gun on her wall;

That chaos is coming and only the strong will survive it;

That her daddy loves her more than anything else in this world.

And he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her with him.

She doesn’t know why she feels so different from the other girls at school;

Why the line between love and pain can be so hard to see;

Why making a friend may be the bravest and most terrifying thing she has ever done

And what her daddy will do when he finds out …

Sometimes strength is not the same as courage.

Sometimes leaving is not the only way to escape.

Sometimes surviving isn't enough.

Reviews

‘There are books we like well enough to recommend, but there are a very few – To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, The Things They Carried – that we remember forever. To my own shortlist I can now add My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent … The word “masterpiece” has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one’ Stephen King

‘A gut wrenching, terrifying novel written so beautifully it sings off the page. Unlike anything I’ve read before. An astonishing debut’ Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

‘An outstanding book that could be this year’s A Little Life’ Guardian

‘One of the most important books you’ll pick up this decade’ Harper’s Bazaar

‘My Absolute Darling is an absolute triumph … Not since D H Lawrence has the turbulence, the rawness and the serenity of the natural world been so originally rendered … For once, believe the hype’ The National

‘Brutal yet beautiful, My Absolute Darling has floored me. Dear Turtle, a heroine amidst the horror. Exceptional, unflinching storytelling’ Ali Land‏, author of Good Me Bad Me

‘Smoothly combines intensely lyrical appreciations of the natural world, full throttle survivalist exploits and a devastating, deftly executed portrait of toxic intergenerational damage.

If you liked Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, you’ll love this’

Daily Mail

‘The writing is beautiful and vivid, while the story is brilliantly urgent, brutal and uncompromising. Like a witness to a terrible car crash, I couldn’t draw my eyes away’ Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days

‘Turtle … is a heroine who’ll hover in your mind long after the final chapter, and Tallent has produced an intense, gloriously written account of her thrilling bid for freedom.’ Mail on Sunday

‘Vivid, tender and brutal’ Elle Magazine

‘Easily one of my favourite debut novels of the last decade’ Michele Filgate, Lit Hub

‘This is a fierce, insightful, gorgeously written debut’ S Magazine

About the author

Gabriel Tallent was born in New Mexico and raised on the Mendocino coast by two mothers. He received his B.A. from Willamette University in 2010, and after graduation spent two seasons leading youth trail crews in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. Tallent lives in Salt Lake City.