Hurting Distance - Hardcover

Sophie Hannah is a best-selling, award-winning poet. Her latest collection, First of the Last Chances, was chosen for the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation promotion in June 2004. She regularly performs her poetry to live audiences nationwide and abroad, and recently won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her psychological suspense story The Octopus Nest. Sophie lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and two children.

'Sophie Hannah's LITTLE FACE startled the British thriller market a year ago, and her new book is another superbly creepy foray in the genre. The plots are brilliant - I couldn't see through this one at all.' -- Guardian 'Poet and children's writer Sophie Hannah is proving to be equally adept at turning her hand to pscyhological thrillers. In HURTING DISTANCE, Naomi's concern for her married lover's well-being grows when his wife insists he is fine, just away. Naomi uses the story of a rape from her past to get the police to sit up and take notice. What makes this novel work so well is that more than one character has a bit of a screw loose - even the detectives on the case are grappling with some crippling personal issues - and it takes the full ride of the novel to find out who is playing whom.' -- Time Out 'Hannah's second novel is a beautifully written chiller-thriller about the after-effect of rape. It grips from start to finish - a grip which held me against my will because the sustained atmosphere of mild hysteria is hard to take ... I couldn't put it down' -- Literary Review 'This is a far better-written book than any genre label might suggest. Hannah is a respected poet and uses the fascinating motif of the sundial not only to provide the reader with clues but to underline perceptions of life, time and death. It's also significant that she won a Daphne du Maurier award. Her powerful subjects of obsession with the past, and fear in the present, testify that she has made a transition to the narrative world of that iconic writer.' -- Independent 'A superbly creepy, twisty thriller about obsessive love, psychological torture, and the darkest chambers of the human heart.' -- The Times 'Another success for this inventive writer.' -- Sunday Telegraph 'The terror created by Hannah will continue to lurk on the edges of your sub-conscious long after you've put this book down' -- The News of the World 'Sophie Hannah's debut novel, Little Face, was one of the best reads of 2006. Her second, Hurting Distance, is equally disturbing and gripping ... Hurting Distanceis always page-turning with a collection of brilliantly delineated characters ... Classy stuff.' (Peter Guttridge) -- Observer