Imogen Crimp

Hot to the touch, a seductive modern gothic about a promising young filmmaker at a famous director's summer home In the midst of an unrelenting heat wave, up-and-coming filmmaker Ruby arrives at the summer home of her idol. Ellen, an iconoclastic feminist director known for mentoring other women, has offered Ruby a room of her own while she finishes her screenplay. Pitching Ruby as the next big thing, producers are clamoring for a "female story" mined from her past, and the deadline is fast approaching. When Ruby arrives in the countryside, Ellen's house emerges like something out of a dream--grand and imposing, surrounded by sprawling gardens and a shimmering swimming pool. But tension thrums beneath the picture-perfect surface. Ellen's reputation is under fire after she's accused of appropriating a story that wasn't hers to tell. Meanwhile, Ellen's mercurial daughter, Lara, lounges by the pool under the blistering sun, drawing her mother's latest houseguest toward her like a moth to a flame. As her aspirational summer of artistic retreat unravels, Ruby finds herself entangled in an all-consuming relationship, waiting for the heat to break. Even the house itself begins to feel haunted, and Ruby has the unnerving sensation that she's not the first promising young woman to fall under its spell. Hot to the touch, Imogen Crimp's Give Me Everything You've Got is a spellbinding fever dream of a novel, exploring the dark corners of ambition, exploitation, and what it takes to be a woman artist.

Ruby has spent her twenties scraping by in unfulfilling jobs. But now she’s tasting her first success as a film director – and she’s caught the eye of Ellen, an iconoclastic feminist filmmaker, critical darling and Ruby’s idol. When Ellen invites Ruby down to her sprawling country house and offers to mentor her through writing her next film, Ruby can’t believe her luck. Arriving in the middle of an oppressive heat wave, she is overawed by the glamour of the house – and finds herself quickly drawn into the middle of a dangerous dynamic between Ellen and her elusive daughter Lara. Because Ellen and Lara, it seems, like to play games with promising young women. As tensions escalate, Ruby begins to ask herself: why was she brought here, and what exactly do these two women want from her? Give Me Everything You’ve Got is the incendiary new novel from Imogen Crimp: a fearless, sultry and deliciously dark exploration of art, power and sex that grips to the final page.

An electrifying, sultry and deliciously dark exploration of sex, power and art - a queer Rebecca for the twenty-first century

"Realnaja zhizn" - ostryj debjutnyj roman anglijskoj pisatelnitsy Imodzhen Krimp ob ambitsioznoj molodoj opernoj pevitse, kotoraja razryvaetsja mezhdu sobstvennoj kareroj i vsepogloschajuschim romanom s muzhchinoj postarshe. Eto chestnaja, mrachno smeshnaja kniga v dukhe Salli Runi o ljubvi, sekse, vlasti, zhelanii i meste molodoj zhenschiny v sovremennom obschestve. Glavnaja geroinja - Anna - ne vpisyvaetsja ni v okruzhenie svoikh bogatykh sokursnikov iz Londonskoj konservatorii, ni v krug semi, kotoraja ostalas zhit v prigorode. I uzh tochno ne javljaetsja podkhodjaschej paroj Maksu, muzhchine, kotorogo ona vstrechaet v bare, gde podrabatyvaet po vecheram. Maks voploschaet vse to, chem Anna ne obladaet: bogatstvo, pedantichnost, samouverennost. Ona nichego ne znaet ob etoj drugoj zhizni, vse kazhetsja uzhasno zagadochnym i intrigujuschim. Neudivitelno, chto vskore Anna predskazuemo popadaetsja na krjuchok, otchajanno pytajas uderzhat vnimanie Maksa i ignoriruja vse znaki, preduprezhdajuschie o toksichnosti etikh otnoshenij. V to zhe vremja buduschaja karera trebuet povyshennogo vnimanija: iznuritelnye repetitsii i besposchadnye proslushivanija. Anna vse bolshe razryvaetsja mezhdu stremleniem razvivat svoi talanty i zhelaniem byt toj devushkoj, kotoroj khochet videt ee Maks. Kogda stavki vozrastajut, a roli, kotorye ona igraet - kak na stsene, tak i za ee predelami, - vse bolshe pogloschajut, Anna vynuzhdena priznat, chto, tschatelno ispolnjaja to, chto ot nee ozhidajut kak ot zhenschiny, ona riskuet polnostju poterjat sobstvennoe ja. Imodzhen Krimp podnimaet v svoem romane mnozhestvo problem, aktualnykh dlja pokolenija millenialov: chto znachit byt uspeshny, kak borotsja za priznanie sobstvennogo talanta v sovremennom obschestve, i nuzhno li za eto borotsja. Zdes obsuzhdajutsja vazhnye voprosy finansovoj nezavisimosti, odinochestva, vlasti, samorealizatsii. Prodolzhaja issledovat temy, podnjatye v romanakh Salli Runi, Imodzhen Krimp nakhodit sobstvennye otvety na mnogie voprosy. Soprovozhdaja mnogie stseny tonkim i iskrometnym jumorom, ona stavit v tsentr svoego romana vopros o tom, chto znachit byt molodoj sovremennoj zhenschinoj. Ochevidna i preemstvennost Imodzhen Krimp v izobrazhenii zhenskikh obrazov u pisatelej drugikh epokh: v Anne chitatel najdet cherty Emmy Bovari, Anny Kareninoj i dazhe geroin Genrikha Ibsena.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2023****A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR****A GRAZIA BOOK OF THE YEAR****SELECTED FOR MALALA'S BOOK CLUB**'Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People' MEG MASON, author of SORROW AND BLISS'Haunting and bleakly compelling ... A writer of promise' SUNDAY TIMES'An absorbing debut about sex and power' GUARDIAN'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES‘One of the buzziest debut novels this spring’ VOGUE_____________________________________________________________________________Anna is struggling to afford life in London as she trains to be a singer. During the day, she vies to succeed against her course mates with their discreet but inexhaustible streams of cultural capital and money, and in the evening she sings jazz at a bar in the City to make ends meet. Here she meets Max, a financier fourteen years older than her. Over the course of one winter, Anna’s intoxication oscillates between her hard-won moments on stage, where she can zip herself into the skin of her characters, and nights spent with Max in his glass-walled flat overlooking the city. But Anna’s fledgling career demands her undivided attention, and increasingly – whether he necessarily wills it or not – so does Max…_____________________________________________________________________________'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES'A beautifully written examination of the psychology of sex, power, ambition and love' DAILY MAIL

Selected for Malala's Book Club"Imogen Crimp's enjoyable debut novel... is an all-too-real reminder of what it is to be a woman in your 20s..." - The New York Times "Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People."--Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and BlissA bitingly honest, darkly funny debut about ambition, sex, power, and love, Imogen Crimp's A Very Nice Girl cracks open the timeless questions of what it is to be young, what it is to want to be wanted, and what it is to find your calling but lose your way to it. Anna doesn't fit in. Not with her wealthy classmates at the selective London Conservatory where she unexpectedly wins a place after university, not with the family she left behind, and definitely not with Max, a man she meets in the bar where she sings for cash. He's everything she's not--rich, tailored to precision, impossible to read--and before long Anna is hooked, desperate to hold his attention, and determined to ignore the warning signs that this might be a toxic relationship. As Anna shuttles from grueling rehearsals to brutal auditions, she finds herself torn between two conflicting desires: the drive to nurture her fledgling singing career, which requires her undivided attention, and the longing for human connection. When the stakes increase, and the roles she's playing--both on stage and off--begin to feel all-consuming, Anna must reckon with the fact that, in carefully performing what's expected of her as a woman, she risks losing sight of herself completely. Both exceedingly contemporary and classic, A Very Nice Girl reminds us that even once we have taken possession of our destinies we still have the power to set all we hold dear on fire.

Selected for Malala's Book Club"Imogen Crimp's enjoyable debut novel... is an all-too-real reminder of what it is to be a woman in your 20s..." - The New York Times "Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People."--Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and BlissA bitingly honest, darkly funny debut about ambition, sex, power, and love, Imogen Crimp's A Very Nice Girl cracks open the timeless questions of what it is to be young, what it is to want to be wanted, and what it is to find your calling but lose your way to it. Anna doesn't fit in. Not with her wealthy classmates at the selective London Conservatory where she unexpectedly wins a place after university, not with the family she left behind, and definitely not with Max, a man she meets in the bar where she sings for cash. He's everything she's not--rich, tailored to precision, impossible to read--and before long Anna is hooked, desperate to hold his attention, and determined to ignore the warning signs that this might be a toxic relationship. As Anna shuttles from grueling rehearsals to brutal auditions, she finds herself torn between two conflicting desires: the drive to nurture her fledgling singing career, which requires her undivided attention, and the longing for human connection. When the stakes increase, and the roles she's playing--both on stage and off--begin to feel all-consuming, Anna must reckon with the fact that, in carefully performing what's expected of her as a woman, she risks losing sight of herself completely. Both exceedingly contemporary and classic, A Very Nice Girl reminds us that even once we have taken possession of our destinies we still have the power to set all we hold dear on fire.