Mad: A Novel (Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know Trilogy) - Hardcover

Esposito, Chloé

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1101985992 ISBN 13: 9781101985991

Publisher: Dutton, 2017

Synopsis

In this compulsively readable debut, set between London and Sicily over one blood-drenched week in the dead of summer, an identical twin reveals the crazy lies and twists she'll go through to not only steal her sister's perfect life, but to keep on living it.

Alvie Knightly is a trainwreck: aimless, haphazard, and pretty much constantly drunk. Alvie's existence is made even more futile in contrast to that of her identical and perfect twin sister, Beth. Alvie lives on social media, eats kebabs for breakfast, and gets stopped at security when the sex toy in her carry-on starts buzzing. Beth is married to a hot, rich Italian, dotes on her beautiful baby boy, and has always been their mother's favorite. The twins' days of having anything in common besides their looks are long gone.

When Beth sends Alvie a first-class plane ticket to visit her in Italy, Alvie is reluctant to go. But when she gets fired from the job she hates and her flatmates kick her out on the streets, a luxury villa in glitzy Taormina suddenly sounds more appealing. Beth asks Alvie to swap places with her for just a few hours so she can go out unnoticed by her husband. Alvie jumps at the chance to take over her sister's life--if only temporarily. But when the night ends with Beth dead at the bottom of the pool, Alvie realizes that this is her chance to change her life. 

Alvie quickly discovers that living Beth's life is harder than she thought. What was her sister hiding from her husband? And why did Beth invite her to Italy at all? As Alvie digs deeper, she uncovers Mafia connections, secret lovers, attractive hitmen, and one extremely corrupt priest, all of whom are starting to catch on to her charade. Now Alvie has to rely on all the skills that made her unemployable--a turned-to-11 sex drive, a love of guns, lying to her mother--if she wants to keep her million-dollar prize. She is uncensored, unhinged, and unforgettable.

About this title

About the Author

Chloé Esposito grew up in Cheltenham, England, and now lives in London with her husband and daughters. She has a BA and MA in English from Oxford University and has been a senior management consultant, an English teacher at some of the UK's top private schools, and a fashion stylist at Condé Nast. A graduate of the Faber Academy, this is her first novel.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

There’s something you should know before we go any further: my heart is in the wrong place. So is my stomach, my liver, and my spleen. All my internal organs are on the opposite side, in exactly the place where they shouldn’t be. I’m back-to-front: a freak of nature. Seven billion people on this planet have their hearts on the left. Mine’s on the right. You don’t think that’s a sign?

My sister’s heart is in the right place. Elizabeth is perfect, through and through. I am a mirror image of my twin, her dark side, her shadow. She is right and I am wrong. She’s right-handed; I am left. In Italian, the word for “left” is sinistra. I am the sinister sister. Beth is an angel and so what am I? Hold that thought. . . .

The funny thing is that to look at us, you couldn’t tell the difference. On the surface, we’re identical twins, but peel back the skin and you’ll get the shock of your life; watch in awe as my guts spill out all mixed up and topsy-turvy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s not a pretty sight.

We’re monozygotic, if you want to know; Beth’s zygote split in two and I materialized. It happened at the very earliest stage of development, when her zygote was no more than a cluster of cells. Mum had been pregnant for only a few days and then—poof—out of nowhere, I show up, cuckoo-like. Beth had to share her nice, cozy amniotic bath and Mum’s home-cooked placenta.

It was pretty crowded in that uterus; there wasn’t a lot of room for the two of us and our umbilical cords. Beth’s got tangled around her neck and then knotted pretty badly. It was touch and go for a while. I don’t know how that happened. It had nothing to do with me.

Scientists think identical twins are completely random. We’re still a mystery; no one knows how or why I occurred. Some call it luck, coincidence, or chance. But nature doesn’t like random. God doesn’t just play dice. I came here for a reason; I know I did. I just don’t know what that reason is yet. The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1101985992
• ISBN 13: 9781101985991
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352