Review: Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Louise is going through the motions. Divorced with a young son and no action on the dating front, her life is a series of routines and mediocracy; too many cigarettes and too many glasses of wine. But there would be no story without an intervention, and for Louise, this takes the form of the man in the bar. A chance encounter with someone different; handsome, witty and interesting. The only snag, as fate would have it, is that he’s married.

So Louise may not have dabbled completely in adultery, but the thought lingers, as does the memory of what could have been with the man in the bar. Luckily for her, she gets to find out just what may have been when it dawns on her that the man is also the Man; her new boss.

As Louise tries to forget their almost-indiscretion and not die of embarrassment, she happens to meet her boss’s wife, Adele, a beautiful and lovely woman who she instantly befriends, bringing with her guilt and secrets.

Louise has truly gotten herself in the shit. Poor choices, no doubt, but she’s pushed along by a delicious magnetism that draws her to the couple, despite her attempts to extricate herself from the situation. Her weak moral fibre makes for truly brilliant reading. Pinborough has penned an addictive and darkly seductive work that is as varied in twists as it is in characters; we visit the moral high ground, the taboo of infidelity, the valleys of insanity, and the peaks of love. It’s a fabulous tableau that is written with such style. There’s no predicting endings or scenarios here; what the reader will quickly learn is that nothing is as it seems, and they’re in for a hell of a trip.

Read it, you’ll love it.

Behind her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough is published by HarperCollins and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers