Frances is a young English woman spending a summer volunteering in rural France,hoping that picking vegetables and making honey will distract her from a scandal thatdrove her out of Paris, her degree unfinished and her sense of self unmoored.

At Noa Noa, named for the ranch owner’s adventures in Tahiti, she comes under theinfluence of Paul, a charismatic, dominant older man. As his hold over her tightens,Frances watches her plans fragment, and she finds herself entangled in a strange,uneven relationship, all the while reasoning: he must know best what’s good for me;after all, he’s older than me.

A novel about the quiet horror of passivity and the cage of being ‘good’, Paulintroduces a writer of extraordinary perspicacity and lyricism.