The protagonist of Sheena Patel’s corrosive, brilliant debut, a 30-year-old arts freelancer living in south London, is fanatical about two individuals: “the man I want to be with” and “the woman I am obsessed with”, who is also having an affair with “the man I want to be with”. The protagonist’s relationship with “the man I want to be with”, a highly esteemed artist, started off with a fan letter she sent him. Years later, she still cannot extricate herself from the asymmetrical affair that has developed – one in which she wants him enough to obliterate most other aspects of her life, and he holds her at arm’s length.
