Four Terrible Parents

The prose is often beautiful and melodic … in this highly original and entertaining book * Sunday Times *
Witty, incisive and beautifully plotted, Four Terrible Parents is a vivid, breathless tale of art, love, family and murder. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Torrey Peters – Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of * The Blue Hour *
Henkel’s comedy-slash-thriller is so fiendishly plotted you might not even notice all she has to say about art, love, friendship and family * Guardian *
Calla Henkel’s brilliantly offbeat new novel begins as a story about chosen family and creative reinvention before spiralling into a gripping literary mystery … Four Terrible Parents is equal parts millennial fever dream and page-turner * Marie Claire *
Incredibly charming, fun and relentlessly whipsmart … Brilliant – Kim Gordon, singer of Sonic Youth and author of * Girl in a Band *
Calla Henkel is unparalleled-her plots intricately built, her characters wholly original, and her skill at balancing chaos and narrative drive is without peer. Four Terrible Parents is all of those things but it’s also brimming with unexpected warmth and bursting with Henkel’s trademark sly wit. A story of a disappearance, it’s also a hectic manual of self-discovery, and like all things Henkel: it does both with verve and joy. Sheer perfection. – Katy Hays, bestselling author of * The Cloisters *
Darkly funny and brilliantly biting, this book punches right to the heart. Calla Henkel just gets better and better every time – Tobi Coventry, author of * He’s the Devil *
Four Terrible Parents is what they call a page-turner, full of fascinating characters who feel familiar yet mysterious, tight psychological nuance, gleeful suspense and the sharpest writing. I could not stop reading this book – Michelle Tea, author of * Valencia *
Henkel’s perspective-switching narrative immediately drops another intense development into the mix; at first, like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, the initial mystery is how things arrive at a devastating crime, and the second mystery is how the crisis resolves. Four Terrible Parents relishes each switch in character point of view, smartly building reader knowledge alongside the changing understandings of each partner/parent… the ride is so thrilling and the characters so lovable (messiness, imperfections, bad choices, and all) that the pages can’t turn fast enough * The Skinny *
A darkly humorous novel * The Bookseller *
Praise for Calla Henkel
Blackly humorous and enjoyably twisted – Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
A sparkling debut … a very good plot-driven thriller dressed in a glittery jumpsuit * Guardian *
Brutal, glamorous and genuinely unpredictable, it will blow your mind until the very last page * Stylist *
Hugely entertaining * New York Times *
Other People’s Clothes is a gritty take on toxic female friendships … Expect a slow burn that’s deliciously dark * Time Magazine *
Thrilling * Cosmopolitan (UK) *
Calla Henkel’s Other People’s Clothes is darkly funny, psychologically rich and utterly addictive. I couldn’t stop turning the pages as this witty, harrowing tale of twisty female friendships, slippery identity and furtive secrets unfolded. This is a debut you won’t want to miss – Megan Abbott, author of THE TURNOUT
A knotted mystery too intriguing to leave unpicked – Alice Slater, author of DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER
Binge-worthy … a brilliantly immersive and almost cinematic experience – Jenny Mustard, author of OKAY DAYS

Calla Henkel is an American novelist, playwright, director and artist currently living in LA. She has staged plays at Volksbuhne Berlin, The Whitney Museum of Art, as well as at New Theater, the experimental theatre space she founded and programmed in Berlin from 2013-2015. Her art writing has been published in periodicals such as Texte zur Kunst, Spike, Mousse, and others. Her artistic work with Max Pitegoff has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. Her debut novel, Other People’s Clothes, was published in 2021, and her second novel, Scrap, was published in 2024 and have both been sold in multiple translation territories.

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