The private choice that many women make between starting a family or focusing on their careers is laid shockingly bare in Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s addictive debut novel, Female, Nude. When four university friends reunite to celebrate the first engagement within the group, a week in a Greek villa promises to sprinkle some of that rarefied Mamma Mia! magic over the upcoming nuptials.
But for aspiring artist Sophie, what was supposed to be a carefree island escape ends up threatening to blow her steady but unfulfilling life right up into those azure Mediterranean skies. The detonator comes in the form of handsome local waiter Kye, a man so thrillingly different in temperament from Sophie’s kind but conservative boyfriend. Kye tempts her nightly with some strictly off-the-menu specials, and the pair soon embark on a physically intense, emotionally confusing affair which leaves Sophie questioning everything.
As relationships crumble and friendships violently implode, Sophie must decide what she wants out of life and what sort of mark she wishes to leave upon the world. Should it be her children, her art, or both? A sexy, sun-soaked read of real substance, Female, Nude dares to paint its women in only the boldest and most uncompromising of colours.
