The Stepdaughter

Synopsis

Abandoned by her philandering husband, J is left alone in their elegant Upper West Side apartment to care for both her young daughter and her thirteen-year-old stepdaughter, Renata. Increasingly isolated and resentful, she turns her sharp intelligence and restless imagination toward the awkward, vulnerable girl, transforming ordinary domestic tensions into a quiet psychological battleground. As J's bitterness deepens, the line between private fantasy and deliberate cruelty begins to blur, with unsettling consequences for everyone under her roof.

Darkly funny, razor-sharp, and psychologically devastating, The Stepdaughter is Caroline Blackwood's unforgettable debut novel and a masterclass in literary black comedy. With unsparing wit and remarkable insight, Blackwood dissects loneliness, envy, maternal ambivalence, and the quiet violence that can lurk within family life, creating a novel that is as unsettling as it is brilliant.

About the Author

Caroline Blackwood (1931–1996) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, memoirist, and journalist celebrated for her mordant humour and psychologically acute fiction. The author of Great Granny Webster, Corrigan, and The Last of the Duchess, she remains one of the most distinctive literary voices of the twentieth century, renowned for exposing the absurdities and cruelties hidden beneath privilege and domestic respectability.

Publisher
McNally Editions

Publication Date
June 3, 2025

Format
Paperback

Pages
144

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Classics · Psychological Fiction · British & Irish Literature

ISBN
9781961341234