Prima Facie by Suzie Miller:

As you’ll have noticed, this is a novel version of Miller’s play. Tessa Ensler is a Scouse girl made good, a barrister with a career on the rise.  When she is date-raped by a colleague, she experiences the injustice of the legal system, particularly against women.  

It’s a skilful, sparse first person narrative that propels the book.  And we see Tessa as a fully-rounded character.  Not to dismiss the main narrative, but it also explores class, misogyny and what a modern Britain actually looks like.  The first person narrative puts the reader as an observer, even in the darkest passages of the book.  But there is also deft flashes of skill as words and phrases are twisted back to chilling effect.  

If anything, the book will add to the visceral power of the play.   As will the audiobook, narrated by the original actor Jodie Comer and the forthcoming film with Cynthia Erivo.  It will only become irrelevant when the statistics at the works’ heart change: 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted or harassed in their lifetime.  It’s a sobering, necessary read.  It’s released by Random House on March 14th and I thank them for a preview copy.