Sophie Mackintosh books

Sophie Mackintosh is a Welsh author known for literary fiction exploring gender, power, and bodily autonomy in novels like The Water Cure and Cursed Bread.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
On Anxiety 2017 Buy
Trauma 2021 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Water Cure 2018 Buy
Blue Ticket 2020 Buy
Cursed Bread 2023 Buy
Permanence 2026 Buy

Sophie Mackintosh is a Welsh writer whose debut novel The Water Cure was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. The book, set on a remote island where a father raises his three daughters in isolation to protect them from a toxic outside world, established Mackintosh as a distinctive voice in literary and speculative fiction. Her prose is spare and atmospheric, favoring suggestion over exposition.

Her second novel, Blue Ticket (2020), imagines a society where women’s reproductive futures are determined by lottery. Cursed Bread (2023) shifted to historical territory, loosely inspired by the 1951 mass poisoning in Pont-Saint-Esprit, France, and told through the eyes of a baker’s wife drawn into a mysterious affair. Permanence, due in 2026, continues her interest in relationships under pressure.

Mackintosh has also contributed to essay collections, including On Anxiety and Trauma. Her fiction consistently returns to questions about who controls women’s bodies and what freedom looks like when the rules are stripped away. She writes with a cool precision that leaves plenty of space for readers to sit with their own discomfort.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Sophie Mackintosh written?

Sophie Mackintosh has written six books across two series.

What was Sophie Mackintosh's first book?

Sophie Mackintosh’s first book is On Anxiety, published in 2017.

What themes does Sophie Mackintosh explore in her novels?

Mackintosh frequently writes about women’s bodies, control, and freedom. Her novels examine how societies and relationships impose rules on women, often through surreal or dystopian settings that make familiar power dynamics feel strange and new.

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