The Hypocrite

A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN TIME, THE DAILY MAIL, THE INDEPENDENT, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING AND THE ATLANTIC

Sicily, 2010. Sophia, on the cusp of adulthood, spends a long hot summer with her father, a successful author. Over the course of that holiday, their relationship will fracture.

London, 2020. Sophia's father, now 61, sits in a large theatre, surrounded by strangers, watching his daughter's first play. A play that takes that Sicilian holiday as its subject and will force him to watch his purported crimes re-enacted. Set over the course of one climactic day, this is the story of a father and a daughter, of all that divides and binds them.

About the Author

Jo Hamya was born in London in 1997. She is the author of Three Rooms and The Hypocrite, which was shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2024. She has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others, and served as co-host of the Booker Prize Podcast. She is also the recipient of a Harold Moody doctoral studentship at King's College London, where her research focuses around building on 20th century western literary sociology and critique to create a viable school of literary criticism for a 21st century digitised landscape.