The Confession

Author Jessie Burton
Narrator Hayley Atwell
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Run Time 11 hours and 53 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Contemporary romance, Family life fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction.

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What to expect

A Sunday Times bestseller and Richard and Judy Book Club pick, The Confession is an absorbing tale of secrets and self-discovery from Jessie Burton, the million-copy bestselling author of The Miniaturist and The Muse.

When Elise Morceau meets the writer Constance Holden, she quickly falls under her spell. Connie is sophisticated, bold and alluring – everything Elise feels she is not. She follows Connie to LA, but in this city of strange dreams and 1980s razzle-dazzle, Elise feels even more out of her depth and makes an impulsive decision that will change her life forever.

Three decades later in London, Rose Simmons is trying to uncover the story of her mother, who disappeared when she was a baby. Having learned that the last person to see her was a now reclusive novelist, Rose finds herself at the door of Constance Holden’s house in search of a confession . . .

'Dazzlingly good . . . Without doubt one of the best novels of recent years' - Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie

Critics Review

Dazzlingly good . . . Without doubt one of the best novels of recent years

Elizabeth Day, author of The Party and How to Fail

A bold, intelligent, wonderful novel

Sarah Winman, author of Tin Man

A beautiful novel and one that will stay with me for a very long time

Louise O'Neill, author of Only Ever Yours

Burton writes perceptively about female identity and creativity . . . stunning

Red

Her best yet, I’m dazzled by it . . . I am deeply jealous of every reader who has it all ahead of them

Daisy Buchanan, author of The Sisterhood

An absorbing tale of self-discovery

Woman & Home

An irresistible tale of families, deception and the consequences of our choices

Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars

A masterpiece about the autonomy of women and their roles in society

Irish Tatler

An absorbing, intelligent piece of storytelling that succeeds in sustaining its mystery to the end

Observer

Stylish and riveting, Burton’s latest is every bit as gripping as The Miniaturist, the debut that made her name

Vogue

The story of the intoxicating relationship between two women, and its fallout

Sunday Times Culture

In The Confession, Jessie Burton hasn’t just captured a myriad of women’s experiences but also the intrinsic ambivalence of living in a female body: the advantages, the oppressions. She’s built a world of women that is so vivid and absorbing that at one point I paused in my reading to google Connie – and only then remembered that she was a fictional character

Jean Hannah Edelstein, author of This Really Isn't About You

The story of three women: Elise, Constance and Rose, who are united by love, rejection and self-understanding. What elevates the story is Burton’s writing – like in The Miniaturist and The Muse – this is a book that’ll sweep you along and make you reflect on your own choices in life

Stylist

I loved Burton’s debut, The Miniaturist, but this is even better! Rose’s mother disappeared when she was a baby, and the last person to see her was Constance, a reclusive novelist based in Hampstead. When Rose tracks her down, will she get the answers she needs? I was completely engrossed

Nina Pottell, Prima

The Miniaturist author channels her talent for complex characters and absorbing mysteries into a new story about the connection between three women

Culture Whisper

A powerful and deeply moving novel about secrets and storytelling, motherhood and friendship, and how we lose and find ourselves

Sheerluxe

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