Anna Fox vive rinchiusa nella sua casa di New York e la sola idea di mettere piede fuori dalla porta rischia di provocarle un attacco di panico. Passa le sue giornate vagando da una stanza all'altra con un bicchiere di Pinot in mano, chattando con uomini sconosciuti, guardando vecchi film noir - la sua passione - e soprattutto... spiando i vicini con l'aiuto della sua Nikon D5500. Nel mirino ora ci sono i Russell, che da poco si sono trasferiti nella villetta al lato opposto del parco. Una madre, un padre e un ragazzino adolescente: la famiglia perfetta, quella che Anna rivorrebbe con sé.
Una notte però alla finestra dei Russell, Anna assiste a qualcosa di terribile, qualcosa di così sconvolgente che sgretolerà il suo fragile equilibrio e metterà a nudo la verità che ha sepolto per mesi.
Mia cara ragazza, non puoi continuare a sbattere la testa contro la realtà e dire che non esiste.
So I was curious about the picture of the Geneva book with a blurb from AJ Finn, which is so prominent in that cover? I had never heard of him and like why wouldn’t they go with the blurb from Coben? Which led me to reading THE WILDEST story about Finn in the New Yorker. And Finn and RA follow each other on insta and now I’m very confused/intrigued. I don’t think they share a publisher (although who owns what imprints is very confusing to me) so why did Finn give the blurb? Do they know each other ? Does RA know Finn is (a con artist of sorts?) Anyway just needed to share this with someone lol
answer under the cut because, frankly, I always write answers that are way too long
(if you make it to the end - well done, and you also have my condolences on reading a bunch of rambling nonsense)
I presume you're referencing this article? I won't lie, I didn't read all of it because it's quite long & you get enough of an overview of his character/what they're talking about by the time you're a third of the way through
but like... yikes my friend
also, I assume you're talking about the paperback cover?
the thing to keep in mind with this white UK paperback cover is that it may not be the final copy but an early draft that was put together for the press event - the person who attended Faber & Faber's publishing event & took the photo admitted on Twitter that as far as they knew, it is probably an early proof (and therefore not the final design)
so that screams to me that they just needed a quick temporary cover for the event done up, and slapped a long quote on to fill up space, regardless of the source
that being said, perhaps it is the final cover - no one knows for sure at this stage, and I certainly won't pretend like I know anything about publishing or the publishing world
both hardcovers (US version on the left, UK version on the right) feature Coben instead of A.J. Finn which, as you say, makes a lot more sense
in regards to never hearing about him beforehand & therefore why did they make that choice over Coben: In all fairness, I hadn't heard of him either BUT I have heard the name of his book before in passing, The Woman in the Window. So even though it doesn't seem like he has a great personal reputation, his book is well-enough known in the genre so it's not a huge surprise to me he would have a quote there
idk maybe Faber & Faber thought he might have more name/brand recognition in the UK than Coben (who, from my understanding, is very US-centric in basically all his works)
I'd also say that most readers don't really follow the personal lives of writers as intensely as we do with other categories of celebrity - only if the writer is very openly just an extraordinarily shitty person to others online (*cough*J.K.Rowling*cough*). so it kinda sounds like Finn has a reputation within his industry... but I doubt that translates to most readers/the general public (e.g. the target audience of the quote)
it is, I do have to say (despite his questionable personal life), a good 'entice the person into picking up the book' quote though - much more attention-grabbing to a passer-by than Coben's "Outstanding" on the hardcovers
re: why Finn would have been passed the manuscript... idk either. though tbh I always kinda assume all companies are inter-related somehow - kinda like how there are basically a tiny handful of mega corporations who own most other companies in the world
yikes.
I obviously know nothing about the publishing industry, but I do vaguely recall reading that there was a lawsuit in the US in recent years trying to prevent this sort of monopoly happening in the publishing world (and failing)
tbh even if they aren't under the same publishing house, my non-publishing-knowledgeable brain assumes that RA's publishers probably just sent the story out to all the prominent publishers with the equivalent of a sticky note on it saying 'reviews by any of your authors in the thriller genre pls'
who knows - there may even be a link between them at Audible. idk, I haven't looked into it at all & I'm sure you could prove me wrong easily, but it's a possibility?
as to them following each other on social media... who knows. I will say, the only real connection between them that I see (in terms of them knowing each other in real life) is that they both live in NYC and/or were possibly introduced in passing at a publishing house/Audible etc.
tbh this is what I assume happened:
Faber & Faber (maybe Audible?) send out the manuscript to all major publishing houses asking for a generic review from a medium-to-well-known thriller author that they can use in the book's press -> Finn is handed it by his publisher, writes a short review, possibly gets paid for this -> RA gets shown said reviews, follows Finn on social media as a result (because hey, he just said something nice about your book, maybe DM him to say thanks?) -> Finn maybe messages him back to say "hey, no problem, congrats on the book" and follows RA back because... why not?
alternatively you could play through a bunch of different scenarios re: how they exactly know each other, but if I had to put money on it, I would assume that the reason they follow each other is exactly the same as in the scenario above no matter how they met/haven't met. RA's extremely polite & reaching out online to say 'thanks for the review' is 100% him
as to RA's knowledge about Finn's poor reputation... my guess is that he doesn't know (but does it really matter that he knows in this context?) and even if he does, if the man wants to publicly throw his weight behind a good review of Geneva... well, he's shitty, sure, but it's not like Finn's an equivalent to JKR
OR who knows - they may be best mates going back decades. no way to tell for sure.
but tbh I don't think it really matters... I doubt they know each other except on a purely passing-ships-in-the-night-purely-profressional basis
I finally read The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn!
Rating: 4/5
-spoilers to follow-
I loved this book! Im very much someone who likes to guess the ending and twists of movies and books to ruin it for myself, and I was still surprised by the final twist in this book. I found myself laughing and scared multiple times throughout this book, which I find so rare. Although, I didn’t get almost any of her black and white movie references, and sometimes felt like my eyes glossed over when she mentioned another one, and I didn’t ever feel like it was an important detail for the story. All in all, the writing is easy to follow along with, and I just love that you even second guess your own memory, just as the main character does. So good.
“I saw a showreel, archive footage from a hundred peeping-Tom thrillers.
I saw a killing without a killer, without a victim. I saw an empty sitting room, a vacant sofa. I saw what I wanted to see, what I needed to see.
‘Don’t you get lonely up here?’ Bogey had asked Bacall, asked me.
‘I was born lonely’, she’d answered.
I wasn’t. I was made lonely.”
