Böcker av Barbara Bourland

The Devil Wears Prada with a murderous twist, a rampant satire on the fashion industry and a genre-busting women's commercial debut

“This is not your grandma’s fairy tale… Brilliant.” —The Washington Post “The Force of Such Beauty grips with the strength of an Olympian and holds it with the endurance of a marathoner … [to] an ending that actually caught my breath, not once, but twice in quick succession.”—The Associated Press   One sunny afternoon in an idyllic kingdom by the sea, a princess named Caroline pretends to sleep. When her keepers strike up a card game, Caroline sneaks into her maid’s car, turns the key, and drives right out of the palace. Alone for the first time in years, she gets on the next flight—only to land in the waiting arms of her guards. As she’s forcibly escorted back to her marble prison, something in Caroline breaks for good. It’s not her first failed attempt, and it won’t be her last. Caroline suspects that she’ll never escape. But she might find a way to be free.   Barbara Bourland’s stunning third novel, a phantasmagorical fable of love and marriage, is her most ambitious and inventive book to date. Inspired by the alleged escape attempts of real-life princesses, The Force of Such Beauty is both the story of an idealistic young woman trapped by a corrupt promise, and a deeply moving reminder that power structures around the world ultimately rest on the subjugation of women’s bodies.   “A fascinating novel about bodies, the way we use them, and the way we break them. It’s one of several works to come out this year concerned with the appropriation of female beauty by powerful men, and examines a harsh choice in the lives of women dubbed desirable by the patriarchal state: do you participate, or do you say no?…Bourland is skilled at finding the noir in the everyday, and illustrating the mechanisms of control that keep us in our place.”—Crime Reads, Best Books of the Year (So Far)

Loosely inspired by a true story, the harrowing tale of a commoner who marries a prince but soon discovers that what she thought was her fairy-tale ending is actually her worst nightmare-and no matter how many times she tries to run away, her new life is one she'll never be permitted to escape.Olympic track star Caroline Muller is on top of the world: she's just won a gold medal and set the record in the women's marathon. But it's while she's training for her next race that it all falls apart-a devastating injury ends her running career for good. Then, while convalescing at a remote health center, she forges an unexpected bond with a handsome young man who's also recovering from a grave injury. Sheltered young Caroline, who grew up on a remote farm in South Africa and who dropped out of school after eighth grade to focus on her running, has no idea that she's just met the Crown Prince of Lucomo, a tiny but wealthy principality on the Mediterranean coastline. Soon Caroline will be propelled from her modest life into a world of unimaginable wealth, power, and glamour. But with power comes those who wish to abuse it, and Caroline soon learns that her new life is not the dream-come-true she'd thought it would be. And that her new husband is not who he seemed at first. But Caroline is an integral part of the royal family's plan for remaining in power, and they won't let her get away so easily…Barbara Bourland's stunning new novel is both an emotionally nuanced coming-of-age tale about a sheltered young woman who falls in love with the wrong man-and pays a devastating price-and a clear-eyed and insightful contemporary meditation on authoritarian power, one that pulls back the curtain on the corruption, greed, and behind-the-scenes machinations perpetuated by wealthy elites around the world to maintain their grip on power.

Refinery29's Best Books of 2017 People Magazine May Pick Recommended Reading from the New York PostEvery weekday morning, as the sun rose above Sixth Avenue, a peerless crop of women-frames poised, behavior polished, networks connected, and bodies generally buffed to a high sheen-were herded by the cattle prod of their own ambition to one particular building. They're smart, stylish, and sophisticated, even the one found dead in her office.When stylish Hillary Whitney dies alone in a locked, windowless conference room at the offices of RAGE Fashion Book, her death is initially ruled an unfortunate side effect of the unrelenting pressure to be thin. But Hillary's best friend and fellow RAGE editor Catherine Ono knows her friend's dieting wasn't a capital P problem. If beauty could kill, it'd take more than that.When two months later, a cryptic note in Hillary's handwriting ends up in the office of the NYPD and the case is reopened, Det. Mark Hutton is led straight into the glamorous world of RAGE and into the life of hot-headed and fiercely fabulous Cat, who insists on joining the investigation. Surrounded by a supporting cast of party girls, Type A narcissists and half- dead socialites, Cat and her colleague Bess Bonner are determined to solve the case and achieve sartorial perfection. But their amateur detective work has disastrous results, and the two ing nues are caught in a web of drugs, sex, lies and moisturizer that changes their lives forever. Viciously funny, this sharp and satirical take on the politics of women's bodies and women's work is an addictive debut novel that dazzles with style and savoire faire.

A twisted play on a psychological thriller about obsession and identity, from the satirical author of I'll Eat When I'm Dead.