Amy Taylor

A simmering, provocative novel about a couple whose affair with a young Greek woman over the course of a summer in Athens threatens to crack their relationship wide open.At a crossroads in their lives, a couple arrives in Greece to house-sit for a friend. Emma is searching for a meaningful next step beyond work or motherhood, and Julian is struggling to come to terms with the failure of his academic career. Their visions for the future seem to be pulling them in different directions, and they hope that this summer away will help them to mend their frayed connection.But Emma and Julian’s plans take an unexpected turn when they meet Lena, an enigmatic young Greek woman,  who presents an opportunity for them to explore their relationship in uncharted and excitingly risky ways. However, as sultry nights turn to oppressive days, Emma and Julian become far more entangled in Lena’s life than they’d bargained for.  Engaged in a struggle for control, the three of them are suddenly faced with consequences far greater—and far more explosive—than they could have predicted.Voyeuristic and thrilling, Ruins delivers the drama of a modern Greek tragedy as it exposes the tensions between privilege and power, desire and intimacy.

A woman's obsession with her new boyfriend's dead ex-girlfriend fuels this sharp and honest debut novel, a send-up of modern dating and love My fingers itched to put his name into the search bar. Once I'd found him, I'd have the cheat sheet. After fleeing to Melbourne in the wake of a breakup, all Ana has to show for herself is an unfulfilling job at an overly enthusiastic tech start-up and one particularly questionable dating app experience. Then she meets Evan. Charming, kind, and financially responsible, Evan is a complete aberration from her usual type; Ana feels like she has finally awoken from a long dating nightmare. As much as she tries to let their burgeoning relationship unfold IRL, Ana just can't resist the urge to find Evan online. When she discovers that his previous girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly in a hit-and-run less than a year ago, Ana begins to worry she's living in the shadow of his lost love. Soon she's obsessively comparing herself to Emily, trawling through her dormant social media accounts in the hope of understanding her better. Online, Evan and Emily's life together looked perfect--but just how perfect was it? And why won't he talk about it? Perceptive and original, full of both pathos and humor, Search History explores the contradictions and uncertainties of twenty-first century romance. Ana's journey down the Internet rabbit hole of modern dating asks the question: Which is our "true" self--the one we show to the world online, or the one we keep to ourselves?