The Snakes by Sadie Jones

The Snakes by Sadie Jones

One of Washington Post's Best Books of 2019

"The Snakes is many things--a parable and an ancient drama where a father's greed devours his children, a police procedural, an avid take on tabloid venality, and a bitter comedy, superbly observed, where behind a woman's eyes she is 'all movement inside herself, like a wasp in a glass.' I admit that I'm still shaken by parts of this novel. Sadie Jones writes with pitiless aplomb and corrosive intelligence."                     

--Louise Erdrich

A chilling page-turner and impossible to put down, THE SNAKES is Sadie Jones at her best: breathtakingly powerful, brilliantly incisive, and utterly devastating.

Recently married, psychologist Bea and Dan, a mixed-race artist, rent out their tiny flat to escape London for a few precious months. Driving through France they visit Bea's dropout brother Alex at the hotel he runs in Burgundy. Disturbingly, they find him all alone and the ramshackle hotel deserted, apart from the nest of snakes in the attic.

When Alex and Bea's parents make a surprise visit, Dan can't understand why Bea is so appalled, or why she's never wanted him to know them; Liv and Griff Adamson are charming and rich. They are the richest people he has ever met. Maybe Bea's ashamed of him, or maybe she regrets the secrets she's been keeping.

Tragedy strikes suddenly, brutally, and in its aftermath the family is stripped back to its heart, and then its rotten core, and even Bea with all her strength and goodness can't escape.

Sadie Jones is the daughter of a Jamaican writer and a London-born actress. She was born in London, England. Jones traveled for years, working as a waiter and teaching English as a second language before returning to London to pursue a career in filmmaking. She subsequently went on to work as a screenwriter, which she did for 15 years, writing for both BBC television and feature films. Her first novel, The Outcast, was published in 2008. She was a nominee for the Orange Prize and won the Costa First Novel Award for it.

Jones is married to Tim Boyd, an architect, and they have two children together. Jones writes of her desire to create The Outcast, It is commonly believed that everyone has a novel in them. I assumed I was an exception to this rule until I wrote The Outcast, which I felt obliged to write. I don't know; in many ways, it's a mystery to me. Perhaps I needed a book with enough life to it that screamed to be published, or perhaps I was simply learning the hard way how to make stories.