Liz Nugent

Originally published: Ireland: Penguin Ireland, 2014.

A Novel

Unraveling Oliver

Sahi K

The book starts off with Oliver confessing that he has hit his wife Alice so badly that she has gone into a coma and might never come out of it. After that, we get to know their story through multiple POVs and timelines – young and teenage Oliver, Alice’s first boyfriend, their neighbor, Oliver’s old friends, Alice’s mentally challenged brother and the details of the summer of 1973.

I really had high expectations from this book and I was disappointed. We are told that Oliver is a psychopath in the beginning itself and the book is supposed to unravel the truth about him, but I did not get that. The story is well written, multiple timelines are managed quite smoothly, and overall it was a good read. It never got boring and I really enjoyed a couple of the side characters. I also especially liked the subplot in France. But the book promised so much more, so I am a little dissatisfied.

A chilling, elegantly crafted, and psychologically astute exploration of human behavior and the nature of evil. “I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.” Oliver Ryan, a handsome, charismatic, and successful man, is happily married to his wife, Alice, who illustrates the award-winning children’s books he writes and devotedly cares for him in their comfortable suburban home. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers blows to Alice that render her comatose. As Alice hovers between life and death in her hospital bed, the couple’s circle of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such an astonishing act of savagery. Oliver tells his story, peeling away the layers to reveal a life of shame, envy, breath-taking deception, and masterful manipulation. As details about his past catch up with him, even he is in for a shock. Unraveling Oliver is a complex, disturbing, and brilliantly written page-turner about how and why a human being transforms into a sociopath.

An amazing, chilling book from one of my favourite authors. Always such an interesting perspective as she writes very unlikeable protagonists 

Unraveling Oliver A Novel

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