Selected for Granta’s 2023 list of the best young British writers under 40, Anna Metcalfe says her debut novel, Chrysalis, was inspired by Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, in which a woman’s transformation is witnessed by three characters.
Having been damaged by a controlling boyfriend, Metcalfe’s nameless protagonist rebuilds her self-esteem and reinvents herself as a wellness influencer. Elliot, a loner, observes her at the gym: “Her hips made broad circles. She swayed her head like something possessed… It seemed too private an act to witness, a deeply intimate thing. Half the room had paused what they were doing to watch.” Impressed by her flexibility, muscle and grace, he takes covert videos of her. They become friends and, briefly, lovers as she sculpts her physique and bulks up on protein shakes.
