Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors - Contemporary Fiction - Paperback

Condition: BRAND NEW. Format: Paperback. ISBN: 9780008421793. Publisher: Fourth Estate. Overview:. Cleopatra and Frankenstein is Coco Mellors' dazzling debut novel, a whip-smart, emotionally raw story of love, addiction, and self-discovery set against the backdrop of New York City. When artist Cleo and advertising executive Frank fall into an impulsive marriage after a New Year's Eve party, their lives - and those around them - are irrevocably reshaped. This paperback edition is a must-have for readers of sharp, character-driven contemporary fiction.. About the Book:. Cleo is a twenty-four-year-old British artist trying to build a life and career in New York. Frank is an advertising executive twenty years her senior, charming and generous, but quietly unravelling under a long-standing drinking problem. Their chance encounter at a party sparks an instant, dizzying connection, and within months they are married - a decision that stuns their friends and sets off a chain reaction none of them can control. Told from multiple perspectives, including Cleo's best friend Zoe and Frank's sister Alice, the novel widens from the central marriage into a rich portrait of a community grappling with love, ambition, and self-destruction. Mellors writes with a rare blend of wit and tenderness, capturing the intoxicating highs of new love alongside the slow unravelling that follows when a relationship is built on need rather than honesty. The prose moves fluidly between glittering party scenes and quiet, devastating reckonings. Themes of addiction, mental health, gender identity, and financial precarity are woven throughout with nuance and compassion. Reviewers have compared it to Sally Rooney and Meg Wolitzer for its incisive observation of contemporary relationships. It is a novel about the stories we tell ourselves to justify our choices, and what it takes to finally choose honesty over comfort. Funny, sad, and deeply human, it has established Mellors as one of the most exciting ne