Vivid and compulsive . . . an addictive and intriguingly dark (if not profound) take on an ancient narrative.” - The New Statesman Tantalizing . . . Readers who enjoy Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate this surreal trip through a troubled woman’s psyche.” - Booklist If you haven’t read Williams before, go for Supper Club instead of this; if you think the premise of The Odyssey sounds promising, read Sam Byers’ Come Join Our Disease. Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter meets Donna Tartt's The Secret History in this story of female desire, friendship, lust, and, above all, hunger....This novel will alternately make you laugh, tear up, and text your group chat begging to start a wayward dining committee."—Vogue

That is, until the day she is selected by the ship's enigmatic captain and (ill-informed) wabi sabi devotee, Keith, for his mentorship program. Encouraging her to reflect on past mistakes and her desperation to remain lost at sea, Keith pushes Ingrid further than she ever thought possible. But as her friendships and professional life onboard steadily fall apart, Ingrid must ask herself: how do you know when you have gone too far? Within this floating world, something darker is taking place. Ingrid is selected to participate in a ‘self-improvement’ scheme by the ship’s enigmatic captain-CEO, Keith. His philosophy of wabi sabi – a Japanese world-view centred on transience and imperfection – requires total commitment from his employees. The ship falls into disrepair as certainties about time and place slip away. All that remains is a relentless corporate culture that asks for disconcerting and farcical sacrifices from those on board.

Until one day she is selected for the employee mentorship scheme - an initiative run by the ship's mysterious captain and self-anointed lifestyle guru, Keith, who pushes Ingrid further than she thought possible. But sooner or later, she will have to ask herself: how far is too far? Perceptive, enigmatic and thought-provoking—I couldn’t put it down. Wonderful!” - Amelia Horgan, author of Lost in Work Ingrid works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner where she spends her days reorganizing the gift shop shelves and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the aisles. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship, wasting the hours aimlessly following tourists around, drinking the local alcohol, and buying clothes she never intends to wear again. It's not a bad life. At least, it distracts her from thinking about the other life--the other person--she left behind five years ago. Discussing ones self and the extents in which we can go to to not only feel accepted, wanted and seen but to also mend and forgive our past tribulations. What I particularly loved about this theme was how as a reader it was blatantly obvious and appalling when Ingrid would do certain acts just to feel accepted and part of a group, though she never saw how horrific these requests were. It really made me contemplate in our everyday life, what we may do as individuals to feel accepted and seen even when we inherently know they're wrong; a conversation I had never read about before, but one that was done in such a unique and somber way.

We all have that fiction trope that isn't for us. That fills us with rage. That, just, ruins everything. This is mine; this book was not for me. I didn't not enjoy the reading of most of it, but then that happened and now, if I'm honest, I'm going with: I really freaking hated this book. As someone who doesn’t generally find cruise ships appealing (and especially so in 2022), I thought the setting of the WA was quite brilliantly done. An entire, carnivalesque world unto itself where Ingrid has endless choices at her fingertips but is also trapped. The ship seems enormous but her own space is small and limited. As the novel progresses, the atmosphere of the WA becomes more dangerous, more hideous, and more satirical. The WA, it turns out, is something more like a cult than an ordinary workplace and the things it asks of its employees become more jarring and horrific. Williams does a good job of establishing Ingrid as the sort of character who will go along with these things. And while I actually really dislike reading books where characters make one bad decision after another, I also didn’t struggle to believe that the employees of the WA would do these things. It reminded me of the cults you read about, like NXIM or even some of the more intense MLMs, that demand utter devotion. Ingrid is a character looking to be utterly devoted to something.From the prize-winning author of Supper Club--a debut novel that Vogue called " Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter meets Donna Tartt's The Secret History"--comes The Odyssey, a fresh twist on the epic journey and an unapologetic takedown of capitalism and "lifestyle" that will appeal to fans of Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh (Molly Young, New York Times) So, there is this brand of fiction: "I'm disenfranchised and miserable and self-destructive; and join me for awhile and then I'll reveal my inciting incident and you can empathize with me." And, I'm not not here for that. I'm not an entirely unsympathetic human and I have the occasional millennial (Though let's not pretend for a second that this gen invented the trope, okay???) self-pitying instinct, so you know, I get the brand. A few years ago I came across a Grace Paley interview in which she stated she cannot write a character until she knows who their family are and where they get their money: a writing practice I fully endorse. And so all fictional characters generally need a terrible job. Here are my top 10 … Ingrid works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner where she spends her days reorganizing the gift-shop shelves and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the aisles. That is, until the day she is selected by the ship’s enigmatic captain and self-appointed lifestyle guru, Keith, for his mentorship program. The Odyssey, Lara Williams’ dystopian modern retelling of Homer’s epic poem, is a surreal trip through a troubled woman’s psyche that examines the profound alienation of the contemporary workplace.

That is, until the day she is selected by the ship’s enigmatic captain and (ill-informed) wabi sabi devotee, Keith, for his mentorship program. Encouraging her to reflect on past mistakes and her desperation to remain lost at sea, Keith pushes Ingrid further than she ever thought possible. But as her friendships and professional life onboard steadily fall apart, Ingrid must ask herself: how do you know when you have gone too far? This was fantastic! The Odyssey is darkly funny and thought-provoking. Although I enjoyed the premise of Supper Club, I felt like Lara Williams linged on the surface. With The Odyssey, Lara Williams commits completely, this novel feels more direct and purposeful. I'm a big fan of an unreliable narrator, and in Ingrid, this is exactly what we get. Williams was effective in creating a protagonist so erratic that I felt physically uncomfortable while reading, jarred not only by the story’s events but by the whiplash of rooting for – and sympathizing with – Ingrid one moment, and then being afraid of her the next. Written by two brothers, this 19th-century comic novel and class satire gives us the diary of George Pooter, a bumbling and generally easily pleased clerk at a vaguely referenced bank or accountancy firm. It recounts the daily tribulations and minor triumphs of his life and mundane job. A successful joke, a moderately interesting anecdote or a bit of gossip provide many a reason to not just get out of bed and into the office, but a reason to live, in this peculiarly uplifting novel.Meet Ingrid. She works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner, where she spends her days reorganizing the merchandise and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the changing rooms. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship and gets blind drunk on whatever the local alcohol is. It's not a bad life. And it distracts her from thinking about the other life she left behind five years ago. I was intrigued by this book as it was pitched as similar to JG Ballard's High Rise, which it is in some respects, with the closed off cruise ship gradually decaying, but The Odyssey is much more focused on one person's mental state than the cruise ship itself. The blurb compares the book to Ottessa Moshfegh’s, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman and Sally Rooney’s novels and while it contains similar themes to all three – the dangers of capitalism, alienation and search for meaning and belonging and the descent into madness – I have never read anything like this. Reading this story is a disorienting experience, with the feel of a fever dream that becomes increasingly sobering as Ingrid nears closer and closer to her home: both on land, and within herself.

This strange, beautiful cruise liner of a book interweaves a biting sendup of corporate, work, and wellness culture with an astute exploration of the emotional icebergs that lie below its protagonist’s placid exterior . . . deeply unsettling and unexpectedly moving.” - Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State

Select a format:

Set on the Microsoft campus in Washington state, Microserfs explores the feudal-like work culture at the company: the employees the novel follows are the serfs presided over by Bill Gates. It was one of the first novels to anticipate a dystopian culture in the tech industry that would soon become the norm, and one particular scene in which an employee slips “flat foods” (such as slices of processed cheese) beneath the office door of another employee, to ensure that they actually eat while working, has haunted me for 20 years. Things start getting weird, Ingrid’s personal and professional life falls apart and the days she gets to disembark from the ship become less exciting to her. Much like Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey, Ingrid is wandering at sea trying to find her way home, or more specifically, trying to find her way to herself. Engrossing, ambitious, joyful as well as dark - which is so close to the bone and so necessary. I can't wait to read her next book' Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self