Those Who Knew (Novey) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Read this now, because everyone you know will be talking about it by early 2019.
Washington Post


Idra Novey's taut second novel takes on an ever-relevant subject: Those Who Knew is a fast-paced, hackles-raising story that focuses on silenced victims of assault and the remorse and shame that comes of not speaking up against abuses of power.
NPR


By turns brutal, funny, and tender.… During what are arguably our own Terrible Years, with truth and justice blurred nearly every day, Those Who Knew is as urgent as a ticking time bomb.
Oprah Magazine


There’s timely and then there’s timely. In this prescient novel, a powerful, corrupt senator may finally atone for his crimes when a woman close to him winds up dead. But who can bring him down?
Entertainment Weekly


This timely thriller examines the power influential men hold over women.
Time


Utterly, painfully, of our time.… Novey reveals the extent of our connections to one another, and the true reach of a person's actions—how they can ripple out so much farther than they'd imagined.
Buzzfeed


The second novel by the poet-translator, whose debut, Ways to Disappear, put her on a short list of boundary-busting young mystery authors, works in a dash of dystopia, untangling the dark history of a progressive senator ten years after the fall of a dictatorship.
New York


Almost exactly a year after the Me Too floodgates opened, this novel takes a closer look at the fallout of a powerful figure’s abuse.
Huffington Post


Poet-turned-novelist Idra Novey's new book is set on an unnamed island country 10 years after the collapse of a U.S.-supported regime. Lena suspects that a powerful senator she used to be involved with is taking advantage of another young woman—and when that woman turns up dead, Lena must revisit her turbulent relationship with the senator.
Bustle


[P]ropulsive.… [T]hough there are some unnecessary structural turns (scenes from a play…), the book nevertheless has a striking sense of momentum. [A]dd in a slight and intriguing sense of the supernatural, and the result is a provocative novel that has the feel of a thriller.
Publishers Weekly


The personal is political in this new novel from Novey.… By concentrating on the interconnected and very personal stories of each [character], Novey negotiates the surreal reality of an aging port city that is both victim and beneficiary of globalization.… Highly recommended.
Library Journal


Novey creates a landscape in which her characters may represent, or sometimes hide, their nation, class, or station in life. Yet her women overcome such barriers and join together, revealing what they know in order to effect change, a modern parable.
Booklist


(Starred review) [A] woman suspects a prominent senator…  is guilty of his own private violence.… It's not a particularly subtle book… it unfurls more or less how you'd expect… but Novey's writing is so singularly vibrant it hardly matters. Dreamy and jarring and exceedingly topical.
Kirkus Reviews