The Tenant

How it reads

The Tenant is thriller (domestic psychological thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a suburban setting, in the present day, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are secrets, family and class and society. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is dark — no rescue, no neat bow. At 368 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.