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Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh review

Unfaithful lovers escape to an uncanny alternate world, in this compelling allegory for infidelity and desire

Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh review

TL;DR

  • Permanence is Sophie Mackintosh's latest speculative fiction novel, focusing on desire and suffering.
  • The story follows adulterous lovers Clara and Francis who find themselves in an uncanny hotel and then a parallel world offering a perpetual holiday.
  • This fantasy world, initially a bourgeois paradise, becomes a prison as mysterious injuries appear and the environment degrades.
  • The novel explores the nature of fantasy, infidelity, and the cyclical yearning that draws the lovers back to the disintegrating paradise.
  • The reviewer praises the novel's concept and characters but desires more sensual prose to match the theme of pleasure.