Description
A gripping psychological thriller that explores the dangerous intersection of friendship, obsession, and moral ambiguity. When schoolteacher Barbara Covett discovers that her colleague Sheba Hart is engaged in an illicit affair with a student, she becomes entangled in a web of secrets and manipulation that threatens to unravel both their lives. As Barbara attempts to protect Sheba, her own hidden motivations and dark obsessions come to light, revealing a complex portrait of two women bound by scandal and desperation. Zoë Heller's debut novel masterfully examines how loyalty can curdle into possession and how the desire to help can mask far more sinister intentions. A haunting meditation on the masks we wear and the price of complicity.
Available Editions
paperback
Macmillan
Published Jan 1, 2003
274 pages
ISBN: 9780312421991
paperback
H. Holt
Published Jan 1, 2003
258 pages
ISBN: 9780805073331
Reviews
1 rating
Community Reviews(1)
What is most intriguing about this book is how what was supposed to be a rather controversial story turns itself into something altogether quite different. Barbara Covett meets Sheba Hart, a new art teacher, and as their friendship develops, Sheba begins an affair with one of her underage male pupils. Our narrator Barbara begins to write an account in her friend's defense, recounting what happened and when, but ends up revealing far more of her own secrets than anyone else's. Acute observations and fine writing with a bleak twist; <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Notes-on-Scandal-Zoe-Heller/9780141039954" target="new"><i>What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]</i></a> is a poignant psychological masterpiece well worth reading.
Details
First Published
2003
Language
eng
Featured in a Challenge
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] by Zoë Heller.