The Confidence Woman

A fresh and darkly funny debut novel about blurred online identities and striving for success (or just security) in a rigged system. Perfect for anyone who's ever enjoyed a good scammer story.

'The wicked Australian lovechild of Sally Rooney and Aubrey Plaza.' Chris Flynn, author of Mammoth

I was active and agile. I was a champion. I was a witch. I was a winner.

Christina is a single mother living in the Melbourne suburbs, but to her online clients she is the esteemed Dr Ruth Carlisle, an 'executive coach and mindset expert, specialising in high-performing individuals'.

Dr Ruth gains her clients' trust through her online coaching business, finds out their secrets and deepest fears, and uses this information to extort them, using the money to save for the ultimate unobtainable Australian dream: a home deposit. But when she uncovers a secret that could set her up with much more than a 2-bedroom apartment in Clifton Hill, suddenly everything is at stake.

The Confidence Woman is a novel about more than one kind of confidence game. It explores and hilariously skewers contemporary cults of self-optimisation, while also creating a moving and too-real portrait of the difficulties of striving for success (or just security) in a rigged system.

About the Author

Sophie Quick is a writer/editor living in Melbourne. She works across editorial, communications and copywriting – mostly for print media, arts organisations and non-profits. She's had inhouse roles at The Big Issue and the Wheeler Centre and her freelance writing has appeared in The Saturday Paper, Meanjin and The Weekend Australian Review. Sophie has written literary criticism, news features, advice columns, horoscopes, chat scripts, speeches and more. The Confidence Woman is her first novel.