Open Wide

A provocative novel about intimacy, love and consent: Open Wide will quite literally get under your skinBy the time we’d said ‘I love you’ and kissed goodnight and turned out the light, thoughts of whether to resist had left my mind. I had climbed inside his body, and now he was stirring. Olive is desperate to get close to Theo – really, really close. Despite being a radio host, she’s always struggled to connect with people. And now she’s in her thirties, single, and so flustered by relationships that she secretly records her conversations, hoping to decipher social clues and find a way to be less alone. Then Theo turns up for a shift at the food pantry where she volunteers. He’s a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former football player, and possibly as weird as Olive. For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her. Every recording Olive makes of Theo is a balm – which just makes her more afraid of losing him. The only solution seems to be to bind him to her forever. Luckily, the gap between Theo’s front teeth is just wide enough for something – or someone – to slip inside. Arresting and immersive, Open Wide explores the boundaries of love and the body, as universal human impulses bleed into the surreal.