Mrs S

K Patrick’s debut novel Mrs S is a meticulously crafted triumph of queer romance shimmering with tension and sensuality. Reminiscent in some ways of a modern cross between The Getting of Wisdom and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, with a decidedly sapphic edge, the story follows the journey of a young Australian woman appointed to the role of matron in an archaic British boarding school.

Unsure of her body and accent in a world of ruthless girlhood and elite privilege, she quickly becomes infatuated with a woman who is her complete opposite: the statuesque and alluring headmaster’s wife, Mrs S. Under the duress of a relentless heatwave, secrets are revealed, mutual attractions are discovered, and an electrifying, illicit affair begins that is sure to change the world of both women forever.

Much of Patrick’s background as a poet can be traced through the novel’s style. Their prose is exacting and scrupulously crafted – with no room for syntax fluff, it can be direct with its high emotive impact. Readers should perhaps be warned of the novel’s Woolfian bent: there’s a modernist-style complete immersion into the nameless protagonist’s perspective that will likely prove controversial to some and endearing to others.

Patrick’s thorough consultations with otherness, the physicality of queerness, and the nature of the butch experience carry with them a powerful sense of intimacy and authenticity that is genuinely incomparable with anything I’ve read before. It’s a formidable debut, and I’ll certainly be on the lookout for whatever they choose to write next.