There’s a voice in Aline’s head: a voice that wants out.

Brash, boisterous and sexually adventurous, this voice seems to be the antithesis of Aline, a prim literature professor for whom each day promises to be as quiet and conventional as the last.

That is until, after thirty-five years of imprisonment, her alter ego breaks free.

Taking on a life of his own, Orlanda – Aline’s second self – slips into the taut, rugged body of a young man. As Aline continues unaware, Orlanda follows, dragging gleeful chaos in his wake, vowing to leave both their existences forever altered.

A bewitching fable, an androgynous dream, Orlanda is one woman’s reckoning with all the hidden sides of her soul.
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READER REVIEWS – JOIN THE ORLANDA OBSESSION:
‘Hilarious, life affirming, haunting?truly perfect in prose, plot, and concept. Just wow‘
‘A powerful novel, witty, wicked and teasing‘
‘It’s the perfect book‘
‘This is the second book I’ve read by her and it’s another masterpiece‘
‘Reading this has confirmed Jacqueline Harpman as one of my favourite writers I’ve ever encountered’

Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?

Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl – the fortieth prisoner – sits alone and outcast in the corner.

Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others’ escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, MAN BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE WATER CURE