Seduced by politics, poetry and an enduring dream of building a better world together, the unnamed narrator falls in love with a university professor. Moving with him to a rain-washed coastal town, she swiftly learns that what for her is a bond of love is for him a contract of ownership. As he sets about reducing her to his idealised version of an obedient wife, bullying her and devouring her ambition of being a writer in the process, she attempts to push back - a resistance he resolves to break with violence and rape.
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[My mother has not stopped talking about it] ***(Atlantic Books, 4 May 2017, ebook, 256 pages, ebook, borrowed from my library)
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This is my first time reading the author. I really wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book at first. It seemed to take ages to get anywhere and I was starting to get bored. Then suddenly, a few chapters in, something clicked and I found myself totally absorbed in the book. The violence in the narrator's marriage takes a few chapters to really start. However, there are hints from the outset that something dark is going to happen. Her husband becomes increasing controlling, cutting her off from the rest of the world. The violence, when it really happens and the rapes are shocking. I felt uncomfortable reading When I Hit You at times. This is a brave, heart-breaking book.
