Nine stressed city dwellers are heading to a ten-day retreat at boutique health-and-wellness resort Tranquillum House – an opportunity for healing and transformation. Watching over them is the resort’s director, Masha, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate these tired bodies and minds. But the lengths she goes to go far beyond what her customers expect. Dark agendas are in play.
Liane Moriarty’s latest novel Nine Perfect Strangers is a funny read with acute observation and fast paced plot. There are thinly veiled barbs at the wellness industry, selfie culture, and the pressure of modern society are delivered through witty dialogue and clever characterisation. All of the characters are flawed, in entirely relatable ways, and it’s easy to warm to them as you roll your eyes at them. New lottery winners, a grieving family, middle aged women – a whole human range is there, and the experience holds a mirror up to the misfits and makes them see things about their lives, even if it wasn’t what they expected.
Moriarty is the Australian author of seven best-selling novels. Big Little Lies shot to fame as a television show featuring Nicole Kidman. Nine Perfect Strangers will also be hitting the screens, with Kidman’s production company Blossom Films and Big Little Lies producer, Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories having signed a deal for the TV and film rights.
Nine Perfect Strangers is an excellently executed book with a catchy and thrilling storyline and sensitively crafted characters. Definitely worth a read.