What do you think?
Rate this book
Permanence
This is the story of an affair. Clara and Francis are in love, but nobody knows it. For months they have been slipping away from their respective lives, sharing stolen afternoons in hotel rooms, their time together painfully sweet and all too short. Until one day they wake up in a bedroom neither of them recognises with no memory of how they got there.
They find themselves in a strange and unfamiliar a place where adulterers can live openly as couples, without fear of consequence, putting the theory of their love into practice. Here the sky is painted over the old town square in changeless, cloudless blue. Ripe fruits wait on the table each morning and the sunset comes down in a blaze of pink each night. And contact with the real world is impossible. As long as Clara and Francis are here, they only have each other.
How do you know when you’ve found true love? How much would you sacrifice to keep hold of it? And how long can you stay in paradise before the cracks start to show?
From the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure and Cursed Bread comes an intoxicating modern love story. Permanence is a thrillingly erotic and sharply relatable portrait of longing and obsession, intimacy and betrayal, possession and dispossession.
They find themselves in a strange and unfamiliar a place where adulterers can live openly as couples, without fear of consequence, putting the theory of their love into practice. Here the sky is painted over the old town square in changeless, cloudless blue. Ripe fruits wait on the table each morning and the sunset comes down in a blaze of pink each night. And contact with the real world is impossible. As long as Clara and Francis are here, they only have each other.
How do you know when you’ve found true love? How much would you sacrifice to keep hold of it? And how long can you stay in paradise before the cracks start to show?
From the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure and Cursed Bread comes an intoxicating modern love story. Permanence is a thrillingly erotic and sharply relatable portrait of longing and obsession, intimacy and betrayal, possession and dispossession.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2026
About the author
Sophie Mackintosh
17 books1,100 followersSophie Mackintosh was born in South Wales in 1988, and is currently based in London. Her fiction, essays and poetry have been published by Granta, The White Review, The New York Times and The Stinging Fly, among others. Her short story ‘Grace’ was the winner of the 2016 White Review Short Story Prize, and her story ‘The Running Ones’ won the Virago/Stylist Short Story competition in 2016.
Sophie’s debut novel The Water Cure was published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK in Spring 2018 and by Doubleday in the US in early 2019 to critical acclaim, and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Her second novel Blue Ticket will be published in Spring 2020.
Sophie’s debut novel The Water Cure was published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK in Spring 2018 and by Doubleday in the US in early 2019 to critical acclaim, and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Her second novel Blue Ticket will be published in Spring 2020.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 368 reviews
March 6, 2026
My god, this is excellent. On the surface, Permanence is a story about an affair, but it’s really asking a bigger question: in a world where romantic love is supposed to be everything, could it ever actually be enough on its own? I think we all know the answer (or at least we should).
The novel follows Clara and Francis, two lovers whose relationship exists entirely in secret: hotel rooms, carefully managed lies, and the constant need to return to their real lives.
But one day they wake up together in a strange city populated entirely by other adulterous couples. Suddenly their relationship can exist out in the open, without hiding. At first it feels like a dream come true. But the city shifts and changes depending on the state of their relationship, and when one of them hurts the other, the aggressor receives a physical wound. What begins as fantasy slowly starts to feel more like a trap.
Books like this almost always get my attention. I love stories that explore what people are willing to sacrifice for even a sliver of happiness—and whether the other person is willing to sacrifice the same. Clara, in particular, feels recognizable in the way she clings to a relationship that isn’t really serving her, driven by longing and the hope that love might somehow be enough.
The writing is dreamy and immersive, and the shifting city becomes the most fascinating part of the story—beautiful at first, then increasingly unsettling as the fantasy of permanence begins to unravel.
It's a meditation on desire, memory, and the strange consequences of getting exactly what you think you want.
The novel follows Clara and Francis, two lovers whose relationship exists entirely in secret: hotel rooms, carefully managed lies, and the constant need to return to their real lives.
But one day they wake up together in a strange city populated entirely by other adulterous couples. Suddenly their relationship can exist out in the open, without hiding. At first it feels like a dream come true. But the city shifts and changes depending on the state of their relationship, and when one of them hurts the other, the aggressor receives a physical wound. What begins as fantasy slowly starts to feel more like a trap.
Books like this almost always get my attention. I love stories that explore what people are willing to sacrifice for even a sliver of happiness—and whether the other person is willing to sacrifice the same. Clara, in particular, feels recognizable in the way she clings to a relationship that isn’t really serving her, driven by longing and the hope that love might somehow be enough.
The writing is dreamy and immersive, and the shifting city becomes the most fascinating part of the story—beautiful at first, then increasingly unsettling as the fantasy of permanence begins to unravel.
It's a meditation on desire, memory, and the strange consequences of getting exactly what you think you want.
April 21, 2026
A departure from Mackintosh's usual hazy, clinical writing, Permanence is a more accessible story than her trio of previously published works. We follow the pair of lovers, Francis and Clara, as they navigate their illicit affair and the complications of secrecy. When they awake in an idyllic city where they can finally be together, they are forced to reckon with their past and the trajectory of their relationship.
Permanence doesn't offer particularly likable characters (Francis especially), but I think most readers will relate to Clara in some capacity. How we cling to relationships that no longer serve us is often rooted in naivety, insecurity, or lust, and I think her character arc embodies each of these three themes well. The concept of the novel is unique and has a lot of potential, but selfishly, I wish it were explored in other facets or from different perspectives. I never warmed up to either Francis or Clara entirely, but perhaps that was the point.
Despite my critiques, I did really adore the setting and how it evolved alongside our narrators; the literal fracturing of the rooms they inhabit, the lustre fading, and the disorienting nature of the city they can never quite figure out. I'm not quite sure how to describe the writing other than very visual, and it's superbly done.
Like always, Sophie Mackintosh has beautiful prose and offers the reader a lush, immersive backdrop to the novel. I think this will be the most commercially palatable of her novels, but I found myself wanting more of the depravity and ambiguity I've come to love in her writing. By no means a bad read, but not quite the usual caliber I've come to expect from one of my favourite writers. Regardless, a solid book I'd recommend for musings on lust and compromise.
Thank you to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for the ARC! Permanence releases April 21st, 2026.
Permanence doesn't offer particularly likable characters (Francis especially), but I think most readers will relate to Clara in some capacity. How we cling to relationships that no longer serve us is often rooted in naivety, insecurity, or lust, and I think her character arc embodies each of these three themes well. The concept of the novel is unique and has a lot of potential, but selfishly, I wish it were explored in other facets or from different perspectives. I never warmed up to either Francis or Clara entirely, but perhaps that was the point.
Despite my critiques, I did really adore the setting and how it evolved alongside our narrators; the literal fracturing of the rooms they inhabit, the lustre fading, and the disorienting nature of the city they can never quite figure out. I'm not quite sure how to describe the writing other than very visual, and it's superbly done.
Like always, Sophie Mackintosh has beautiful prose and offers the reader a lush, immersive backdrop to the novel. I think this will be the most commercially palatable of her novels, but I found myself wanting more of the depravity and ambiguity I've come to love in her writing. By no means a bad read, but not quite the usual caliber I've come to expect from one of my favourite writers. Regardless, a solid book I'd recommend for musings on lust and compromise.
Thank you to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for the ARC! Permanence releases April 21st, 2026.
April 5, 2026
Sophie Mackintosh always leaves me a little disoriented in the best way. Permanence is no exception.
Did Not Finish
October 24, 2025I'm grateful to this book because it unlocked an interesting reflection and conversation about DNFing.
Now, that might sound harsh as a start, so I'll go over my experience reading this book up to about the 50% mark first. This is just my experience so YMMV as per usual.
Me DNFing Permanence:
PROS
* It's quite nicely written, certainly has the dreamy, unreal vibe down
* The characters were realistic. They could have been my neighbours, or people I'd walk past in the street. They were (very) flawed, and that was reflected in their relationship
* The concept - a "dream town" of sorts for adulterers - was very interesting
CONS
* I'm sorry, I'm bad at putting up with head-hopping and lack of punctuation in dialogues. Sure, it can be read and understood. But did we need to...?
* The characters were insufferable. I mean, most likely intentional and probs to be expected when I said they were realistic, right? I have read and enjoyed books that followed obnoxious and despicable characters reaaaally close up (Yellowface comes to mind). But these two were somehow annoying enough that I couldn't stand being in their heads for long stretches of time
* Slooooooooooooooooooow paced. Nothing against slow-paced books. But when a short book like this takes forever to get through, and feels like you're making little to no progress, you know there's a problem.
Now, that problem might be with me (and probably is). I put down this book on Saturday, and was unable to pick it up in the two days after that. The mere idea of reading a few pages was unbearable. And that's how I knew that it was time to DNF.
I was resisting it because I intended for this book to be a bit of a foray into literary fiction, which I don't read much of, and I wanted to see it through to the end.
But at the end of the day, I read for fun. I have many other hobbies and not enough free time for everything I'd like to do as it is (probably like everyone else here).
It suddenly struck me that life is short, too short to waste time on a book I'm not enjoying, or even on a book I feel "meh" about, when I already want to read a lifetime worth of books.
I could die tomorrow, and I don't want to die reading 'Permanence' (or maybe I do, that title would be kind of ironic xD) which feels like self-imposed homework.
Don't you worry though, I shall continue to hate-read until I either get bored of it or evolve as a person, whatever happens first :D
And with that said, let this be one of many proud DNFs to come! Some with reviews, some without, but that list is gonna grow. And so is the 5* list!
So go DNF those meh books with me. Don't suffer through them.
Now, that might sound harsh as a start, so I'll go over my experience reading this book up to about the 50% mark first. This is just my experience so YMMV as per usual.
Me DNFing Permanence:
PROS
* It's quite nicely written, certainly has the dreamy, unreal vibe down
* The characters were realistic. They could have been my neighbours, or people I'd walk past in the street. They were (very) flawed, and that was reflected in their relationship
* The concept - a "dream town" of sorts for adulterers - was very interesting
CONS
* I'm sorry, I'm bad at putting up with head-hopping and lack of punctuation in dialogues. Sure, it can be read and understood. But did we need to...?
* The characters were insufferable. I mean, most likely intentional and probs to be expected when I said they were realistic, right? I have read and enjoyed books that followed obnoxious and despicable characters reaaaally close up (Yellowface comes to mind). But these two were somehow annoying enough that I couldn't stand being in their heads for long stretches of time
* Slooooooooooooooooooow paced. Nothing against slow-paced books. But when a short book like this takes forever to get through, and feels like you're making little to no progress, you know there's a problem.
Now, that problem might be with me (and probably is). I put down this book on Saturday, and was unable to pick it up in the two days after that. The mere idea of reading a few pages was unbearable. And that's how I knew that it was time to DNF.
I was resisting it because I intended for this book to be a bit of a foray into literary fiction, which I don't read much of, and I wanted to see it through to the end.
But at the end of the day, I read for fun. I have many other hobbies and not enough free time for everything I'd like to do as it is (probably like everyone else here).
It suddenly struck me that life is short, too short to waste time on a book I'm not enjoying, or even on a book I feel "meh" about, when I already want to read a lifetime worth of books.
I could die tomorrow, and I don't want to die reading 'Permanence' (or maybe I do, that title would be kind of ironic xD) which feels like self-imposed homework.
Don't you worry though, I shall continue to hate-read until I either get bored of it or evolve as a person, whatever happens first :D
And with that said, let this be one of many proud DNFs to come! Some with reviews, some without, but that list is gonna grow. And so is the 5* list!
So go DNF those meh books with me. Don't suffer through them.
July 8, 2026
4.5 stars
I really enjoyed this. It was a perfect book to read in a heat wave, because it's cleanly written enough to not overtax the brain, but still somewhat weighty (I tend not to do beach reads as such).
It's a novel about adulterers. As someone who was briefly an Other Woman a long time ago, and has seen friends pulled through that wringer later on, it's a topic I find interesting. In an inversion of Tolstoy, all unhappy affairs are the same. All of them are horror stories, so the only way to make writing about them effective is to do something different in the writing itself. Lorrie Moore has a short story called "How to Be an Other Woman" that is written in the second person imperative, a really effective way to show the spiral, and probably my favourite affair writing until now.
Here, Sophie Mackintosh gives the topic a speculative edge. Francis and Clara wake up one morning in the City of Impermance, the city where adulterers go to live out the perfect lives they imagine when they are stealing around meeting in the real world. It's a banal paradise of piazzas, restaurants with tablecloths and candles, bike rides along the river. Flowers wilt quickly though, and after a honeymoon period, couples need to a get a job. When they do emotional harm to each other, they wake up back home; when they truly want to return, they do.
Vincenzo Latronico's blurb describes it as a "dream that is revealed to be a nightmare," which is basically the definition of affairs anyway. It reminded me of the Marvel series WandaVision, which I adored for its wish-fulfilment-as-reality-with-the-cracks-showing. It is a slightly thin topic to sustain a whole novel, and at the midpoint this was getting a little overly banal, a little frustrating ... but then something happened that upped the ante considerably.
An intelligent and imaginative summer read for masochists.
I really enjoyed this. It was a perfect book to read in a heat wave, because it's cleanly written enough to not overtax the brain, but still somewhat weighty (I tend not to do beach reads as such).
It's a novel about adulterers. As someone who was briefly an Other Woman a long time ago, and has seen friends pulled through that wringer later on, it's a topic I find interesting. In an inversion of Tolstoy, all unhappy affairs are the same. All of them are horror stories, so the only way to make writing about them effective is to do something different in the writing itself. Lorrie Moore has a short story called "How to Be an Other Woman" that is written in the second person imperative, a really effective way to show the spiral, and probably my favourite affair writing until now.
Here, Sophie Mackintosh gives the topic a speculative edge. Francis and Clara wake up one morning in the City of Impermance, the city where adulterers go to live out the perfect lives they imagine when they are stealing around meeting in the real world. It's a banal paradise of piazzas, restaurants with tablecloths and candles, bike rides along the river. Flowers wilt quickly though, and after a honeymoon period, couples need to a get a job. When they do emotional harm to each other, they wake up back home; when they truly want to return, they do.
Vincenzo Latronico's blurb describes it as a "dream that is revealed to be a nightmare," which is basically the definition of affairs anyway. It reminded me of the Marvel series WandaVision, which I adored for its wish-fulfilment-as-reality-with-the-cracks-showing. It is a slightly thin topic to sustain a whole novel, and at the midpoint this was getting a little overly banal, a little frustrating ... but then something happened that upped the ante considerably.
An intelligent and imaginative summer read for masochists.
June 8, 2026
Lovers often create new realities together: shared jokes, whispers, laughs, and stories become the architecture of a shared life. What happens when that imagined life becomes tangible?
Permanence transports us to a world where adulterers live in another universe. They spend their days in a perfect paradise, consuming each other, all distractions literally shunted to the side. There's no need for stolen moments: they have each other all the time. What happens to the fantasy of the person when you have them 24/7? What happens to the guilt when your real family literally doesn't exist?
This is a delicate, surreal exploration of devotion, desire, intimacy, and longing. Mackintosh brilliantly constructs the world of impermanence, giving it rules and heft, and then deconstructs it along a traditional relationship arc: everything is perfect until you start asking questions. Where will we live? How will we construct our life together? Do we want kids? What about your wife???
The adultery is the metaphor and the vehicle for her true interest, which is humanity, love, and power. I loved this-- a brilliant addition to the cheating canon (again, I cannot believe this is my brand, but here we are).
Permanence transports us to a world where adulterers live in another universe. They spend their days in a perfect paradise, consuming each other, all distractions literally shunted to the side. There's no need for stolen moments: they have each other all the time. What happens to the fantasy of the person when you have them 24/7? What happens to the guilt when your real family literally doesn't exist?
This is a delicate, surreal exploration of devotion, desire, intimacy, and longing. Mackintosh brilliantly constructs the world of impermanence, giving it rules and heft, and then deconstructs it along a traditional relationship arc: everything is perfect until you start asking questions. Where will we live? How will we construct our life together? Do we want kids? What about your wife???
The adultery is the metaphor and the vehicle for her true interest, which is humanity, love, and power. I loved this-- a brilliant addition to the cheating canon (again, I cannot believe this is my brand, but here we are).
February 13, 2026
i can see that Mackintosh's writing is beautiful and the concept of this book is original. never have i ever read something like this. but—why not many things actually happens? i just got bored. i didn't like how it went, i only wished the two of them would get into some real conflict to make it more exciting. because honestly, nothing much happened. nothing really stood out.
one bonus star for the original concept, but other than that, meh. and why are people so obsessed with books with no quotation marks? do they know it actually takes more effort to read them? 😭
one bonus star for the original concept, but other than that, meh. and why are people so obsessed with books with no quotation marks? do they know it actually takes more effort to read them? 😭
May 20, 2026
This is your conventional “weird girl novel” haha but I loved it. I have been thinking about idolatry lately, and this story accurately depicts how our obsessions can destroy us. Sad, eerie, intriguing.
May 1, 2026
on an elementary syntactic level this was just horrendous to read. ‘Taking up [1. his hand], [1.] worn from activities [2. she] hadn't witnessed, [2. she] kissed [1. it], quickly, bashfully.’ is that so. ‘[1. The paintings] glowed inside [1. their] lavish framing, but [2. she] no longer saw [1. them], [3. his presence] absorbing [2. her] whole focus.’ I see.
and all the rest is just extremely discount bright-purple word salad and lots of long, generic lists, luxuriating in their utter genericness:
this is so cheaply sentimental and so overwhelmingly indifferent. have you ever thought that we give too little attention to the ordinary stuff of life? nobody has ever said this before. my Goodness — toaster crumbs. that's how we know that this is a modern, adventurous author.
heaven forfend some tedious dialogue (some extraordinarily tedious dialogue. strip away the limp editorialising and what do we have? — I love you, I still love you. So why leave? Because you won't give me anything real. I've given you all I could. Please don't go. — surely, but surely, we could take more delight than this in the many pleasures offered by the English language.) is uttered without needing to be explained, and not just explained but submerged in gnomic nonsense. what Has the light and the time of day got to do with the price of eggs in China. ghastly. I think we should stop publishing books altogether until whatever this kind of thing is has been stamped out
and all the rest is just extremely discount bright-purple word salad and lots of long, generic lists, luxuriating in their utter genericness:
In the city there was time for all of this, and more. Time for the ordinary, to which we normally give little value: the arm snaked around the waist as the other cooks, the choreography of vegetables chopped, the name called from another room (Francis, could you come here a second, Clara had always dreamed of calling), the magazine picked up and flicked through and discarded on a table, the crumbs in the toaster, the kiss on the side of the mouth, the coffee made and brought to bed.
this is so cheaply sentimental and so overwhelmingly indifferent. have you ever thought that we give too little attention to the ordinary stuff of life? nobody has ever said this before. my Goodness — toaster crumbs. that's how we know that this is a modern, adventurous author.
I love you, said Clara. I still love you.
So why leave? said Francis.
Because you won’t give me anything real, she said.
I’ve given you all I could, he replied.
Clara knew both statements had their own truth. It depended on the angle you viewed them from, the light, the time of day.
Please don’t go, he said. He leaned forward. His face was open, beseeching, in a way she had never seen before.
heaven forfend some tedious dialogue (some extraordinarily tedious dialogue. strip away the limp editorialising and what do we have? — I love you, I still love you. So why leave? Because you won't give me anything real. I've given you all I could. Please don't go. — surely, but surely, we could take more delight than this in the many pleasures offered by the English language.) is uttered without needing to be explained, and not just explained but submerged in gnomic nonsense. what Has the light and the time of day got to do with the price of eggs in China. ghastly. I think we should stop publishing books altogether until whatever this kind of thing is has been stamped out
April 24, 2026
Permanence presents a compelling premise: affair partners are occasionally transported to an otherworldly city where they can exist freely among others like them. I was immediately drawn to this concept and the questions it raises about desire/fantasy/boundaries.
While the setting intrigued me, I found myself less invested in the central relationship. Clara’s devotion to Francis felt static in a way that left me completely unmoved, so the underlying sense of longing didn't really land for me.
I understand the choice to keep the concept focused, but it felt a little too narrow. The novel centers a specific vision of affairs as rooted in sustained longing for an alternate life, which hardly reflects the range of extramarital activities we find in reality. I suspect this was intended to heighten the emotional stakes, but it had the opposite effect for me.
Like in her other works, Mackintosh’s prose is atmospheric and descriptive in a way I'm sure my peers would enjoy but it typically doesn't work for me (and here is no exception).
Ultimately, I appreciated the ambition of the concept, but would have preferred this either as a short story or as a concept fleshed out with multiple focal couples. This felt a bit like a blend of The Ten Year Affair and Acts of Desperation filtered through Maggie O'Farrell's writing style in a way that didn't work for me as well as I had hoped.
While the setting intrigued me, I found myself less invested in the central relationship. Clara’s devotion to Francis felt static in a way that left me completely unmoved, so the underlying sense of longing didn't really land for me.
I understand the choice to keep the concept focused, but it felt a little too narrow. The novel centers a specific vision of affairs as rooted in sustained longing for an alternate life, which hardly reflects the range of extramarital activities we find in reality. I suspect this was intended to heighten the emotional stakes, but it had the opposite effect for me.
Like in her other works, Mackintosh’s prose is atmospheric and descriptive in a way I'm sure my peers would enjoy but it typically doesn't work for me (and here is no exception).
Ultimately, I appreciated the ambition of the concept, but would have preferred this either as a short story or as a concept fleshed out with multiple focal couples. This felt a bit like a blend of The Ten Year Affair and Acts of Desperation filtered through Maggie O'Farrell's writing style in a way that didn't work for me as well as I had hoped.
September 25, 2025
The story had a hazy quality, especially the alternate city in the beginning, and the characters seemed sketched in rather than fully realized. I think the lack of characterization and building up of the core relationship is what bothered me most; the story hinges entirely on the illicit relationship of Clara and Francis, and yet I saw very little of what drew them so strongly together, I just could not get invested. Yes, the page count is short, but there was a lot of repetition that I think could have been replaced with more character development.
The concept of the alternate city is interesting, but I could not relate to the characters being so in lust/love that they often preferred it over the real world that contained everything else in their lives besides their affair.
The concept of the alternate city is interesting, but I could not relate to the characters being so in lust/love that they often preferred it over the real world that contained everything else in their lives besides their affair.
May 25, 2026
I really enjoyed this unusual story. I love everything Mackintosh writes and she did not let me down here. Great writing; both imaginative and thought-provoking. She is one of my favorite authors, but definitely an acquired taste. If you’ve enjoyed any of her previous books, you will most likely appreciate this one!
June 11, 2026
I just love Sophie Maskintosh's writing! This was such an interesting, haunting, quiet little story.
April 21, 2026
"To have wanted for so long, and then to have. To ask and to receive in attendant simplicity. To have existed mainly within absence and then to have the abundance of here: a word so assured, both statement and answer."
This book had such an ethereal atmosphere. It was like a dream, really. And though much of it was like Groundhog Day, the pattern of these two characters was magnetic. I couldn't wait to find out how it ended.
Clara and Francis are the most secret of lovers. No one knows they escape together in an alternate world. They wonder if it's a dream. And somehow they know it isn't. In this other world, the impermanence, they long to make it eternal. But there is a cost. A weight to belonging in this new reality. How long can they remain here before paradise falls apart?
The concept of this novel grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in. I was completely caught up in this otherworldly relationship, and then in the lives Clara and Francis lived upon returning to the known reality. The juxtaposition of these two worlds was the most captivating part of this book. And it is brilliantly executed. I am not so sure I'm ok with this new trend surfacing more and more in writing- the celebration of infidelity. I get that the writing of romance hinges partly on the idea of improbability. I understand that romance writers often must ask themselves, "Why shouldn't these two be together?" I also understand that complex characters, their choices, and behaviors are essential to great writing. Why does infidelity have to be the answer? There are so many other taboo reasons for characters to fall in love without creating a kitsch romance novel. The writing, though - I will return to Sophie Mackintosh in the future.
Thank you NetGalley, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, and Sophie Mackintosh for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This book had such an ethereal atmosphere. It was like a dream, really. And though much of it was like Groundhog Day, the pattern of these two characters was magnetic. I couldn't wait to find out how it ended.
Clara and Francis are the most secret of lovers. No one knows they escape together in an alternate world. They wonder if it's a dream. And somehow they know it isn't. In this other world, the impermanence, they long to make it eternal. But there is a cost. A weight to belonging in this new reality. How long can they remain here before paradise falls apart?
The concept of this novel grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in. I was completely caught up in this otherworldly relationship, and then in the lives Clara and Francis lived upon returning to the known reality. The juxtaposition of these two worlds was the most captivating part of this book. And it is brilliantly executed. I am not so sure I'm ok with this new trend surfacing more and more in writing- the celebration of infidelity. I get that the writing of romance hinges partly on the idea of improbability. I understand that romance writers often must ask themselves, "Why shouldn't these two be together?" I also understand that complex characters, their choices, and behaviors are essential to great writing. Why does infidelity have to be the answer? There are so many other taboo reasons for characters to fall in love without creating a kitsch romance novel. The writing, though - I will return to Sophie Mackintosh in the future.
Thank you NetGalley, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, and Sophie Mackintosh for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
April 16, 2026
Welcome to Eden for cheaters! Everything is perfect and, better still, your love is no longer a dirty secret. The only way you can fall back to the real world (and to that nagging wife you hate) is by being a dick to the person supposedly love. Easy, right? So, imagine my surprise when Mr. I-can-only-get-it-up-if-I-can-feel-superior-to-the-much-younger-woman-I’m-stringing-along starts ruining their newfound life together!
Maybe lived experience of an affair would make me more compassionate. As it stands, this just feels like a frustrating narrative of a pissy, hypocritical man and a girl who really should know better than to stay with him. When she does leave, I had very little patience for the descriptions of her aching and the pain flaring up like a broken bone.
Maybe lived experience of an affair would make me more compassionate. As it stands, this just feels like a frustrating narrative of a pissy, hypocritical man and a girl who really should know better than to stay with him. When she does leave, I had very little patience for the descriptions of her aching and the pain flaring up like a broken bone.
April 9, 2026
I knew from the premise that I would love this book and feel it to my core; and I did, I loved it and felt it to my core
May 20, 2026
A story of an adulterous love, if getting what you want will actually make you happy. The story of a couple, him the married one, her the other woman waking up in a dream city (which gave me the village in The Prisoner vibes tbh), where they can be together in the open, wake up together, hold hands in public. But is it enough? How the city appears at any given time reflects their state of mind
I found this book moving, haunting even. And, ultimately, devastating.
I found this book moving, haunting even. And, ultimately, devastating.
May 14, 2026
2.5???? Meh
May 2, 2026
Clara and Francis are madly in love. One day they wake up in a surreal city, inhabited by individuals like them. Both happen to be cheating on their partners - partners they'd left behind in the real world. As time goes by, the city starts to look bleaker, their passion cools and they start noticing large cracks and ugliness surrounding them. Over time, they travel back to the real world and feel conflicted. They either miss one another or they feel bits of remorse for cheating on their partners. Well written tale, one that keeps us guessing and rooting for love to win, whatever form that victory may take.
May 2, 2026
not badly written, just boring!
November 17, 2025
Sophie Mackintosh’s Permanence is a fable about the dilemma of choice and its consequences. She separates the setting of an affair into its own world, where the adulterers have what they have been wishing for: freedom, times, and no commitment. The city challenges the adulterers perspective of entitlement, forcing choice and punishment for their actions.
I’m very interested to see others perspectives on this novel once it’s released, I’m sure there is so much that could be unpacked here!
Honest review in exchange for NetGalley ARC
I’m very interested to see others perspectives on this novel once it’s released, I’m sure there is so much that could be unpacked here!
Honest review in exchange for NetGalley ARC
November 19, 2025
I was completely intrigued by the synopsis—so much so that I immediately dropped my other reads to start this one. My excitement quickly dissolved when I realized the book utilized unconventional dialogue formatting (specifically, no quotation marks). My brain immediately hit a wall! Despite my best efforts to push through, I quickly became bored and lost all momentum. I haven't been motivated to pick it back up. With a substantial backlog of ARCs waiting, I'm learning to be okay with DNFing books that don't capture my attention right away.
June 27, 2026
PERMANENCE has an intriguing premise, but the execution could’ve been so much better.
One morning, Clara and Francis wake up in an apartment they’ve never been in. No other person from their lives have been transported to this mysterious city. Clara and Francis’ relationship is based on adultery. (They met at a museum and became infatuated with one another despite Francis being a married man with a daughter). It is quickly disclosed that everyone in this mysterious city is in adulterous relationships. The city is a haven where adulterous couples conduct their lives as legitimate couples.
Despite the premise having a supernatural lens, the story is played straight. This is merely a relationship drama that just happens to have a fantastical backdrop. And that’s not the problem, it’s kinda genius. It’s just that I found the themes of adultery and coveting could have been explored much deeper than what was presented here. This was a clichéd by-the-books relationship. I kept thinking how much more fascinating it could’ve been if the gender dynamics were swapped: What if Clara was the one who was married and a mother? What if Francis was the one doing the pining and waiting? See how those changes automatically gives the story a more original dynamic to explore, which could pair nicely with its unique premise.
In some ways, I get what the novel was trying to dive into: the deep longing, the unrequited commitments. A way to show us that when adulterers are given the chance to fully commit to one another, it would feel like unbridled bliss, but eventually reality will set in and cracks would emerge just like in any other relationship. Sometimes the thrill is in wanting something you cannot totally have.
But in other ways, I don’t think the novel delivered much on anything. It’s a compelling enough story, but what it offers in analysis is surface level. Mackintosh does have a way of drawing you in because of her dreamlike prose, but I expected something much more thought-provoking to match its stylish energy. The potential was there (and it’s not a bad story), but it was a little too bare bones to provide any real impact.
One morning, Clara and Francis wake up in an apartment they’ve never been in. No other person from their lives have been transported to this mysterious city. Clara and Francis’ relationship is based on adultery. (They met at a museum and became infatuated with one another despite Francis being a married man with a daughter). It is quickly disclosed that everyone in this mysterious city is in adulterous relationships. The city is a haven where adulterous couples conduct their lives as legitimate couples.
Despite the premise having a supernatural lens, the story is played straight. This is merely a relationship drama that just happens to have a fantastical backdrop. And that’s not the problem, it’s kinda genius. It’s just that I found the themes of adultery and coveting could have been explored much deeper than what was presented here. This was a clichéd by-the-books relationship. I kept thinking how much more fascinating it could’ve been if the gender dynamics were swapped: What if Clara was the one who was married and a mother? What if Francis was the one doing the pining and waiting? See how those changes automatically gives the story a more original dynamic to explore, which could pair nicely with its unique premise.
In some ways, I get what the novel was trying to dive into: the deep longing, the unrequited commitments. A way to show us that when adulterers are given the chance to fully commit to one another, it would feel like unbridled bliss, but eventually reality will set in and cracks would emerge just like in any other relationship. Sometimes the thrill is in wanting something you cannot totally have.
But in other ways, I don’t think the novel delivered much on anything. It’s a compelling enough story, but what it offers in analysis is surface level. Mackintosh does have a way of drawing you in because of her dreamlike prose, but I expected something much more thought-provoking to match its stylish energy. The potential was there (and it’s not a bad story), but it was a little too bare bones to provide any real impact.
March 30, 2026
Sealed off, secret, sharpened by the knowledge that it shouldn’t survive— there’s always something intoxicating about the things we can’t have. This novel is a door to charged spaces: Clara and Francis stealing hours from thin air, building something fragile and electric in the margins of reality and a dream. And those margins collapse into a strange, self-contained city where pairs live openly and shamelessly together, the fantasy arriving fully formed— no more hiding, no more leaving. Just desire, uninterrupted. And no where left to go.
But the novel is less interested in indulgence than in what indulgence costs. The city offers a seductive type of devotion— routine as intimacy, pleasure as obligation— until the very thing that once felt urgent begins to calcify. What happens when longing is given everything it asked for? Mackintosh understands that desire thrives on absence, on risk, on balance, on the possibility of loss, and she lets that tension build beneath every carefully rendered detail. The result is a love story that feels both lush and claustrophobic, like something too beautiful to touch without consequence.
What you’re left with is the question the book refuses to soften: how much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to sustain a feeling? There’s an aching brutality in the answer. This is a novel of seduction, you included, dear reader. Imperceptibly, the narrative tightens its grip, revealing permanence not as promise, but as a kind of beautiful, irreversible mistake. Yearn at your own risk.
But the novel is less interested in indulgence than in what indulgence costs. The city offers a seductive type of devotion— routine as intimacy, pleasure as obligation— until the very thing that once felt urgent begins to calcify. What happens when longing is given everything it asked for? Mackintosh understands that desire thrives on absence, on risk, on balance, on the possibility of loss, and she lets that tension build beneath every carefully rendered detail. The result is a love story that feels both lush and claustrophobic, like something too beautiful to touch without consequence.
What you’re left with is the question the book refuses to soften: how much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to sustain a feeling? There’s an aching brutality in the answer. This is a novel of seduction, you included, dear reader. Imperceptibly, the narrative tightens its grip, revealing permanence not as promise, but as a kind of beautiful, irreversible mistake. Yearn at your own risk.
July 6, 2026
Read this in one sitting before going to bed and I literally could not sleep because I found the ideas in this book so psychologically distressing. It’s such a short book but I cared about the characters so much - I cried several times
May 20, 2026
I’ve read all of Sophie’s books in the hope that one would capture me like her debut did and at last here we are. Yes stunning very good
May 8, 2026
“How many loves, or echoes of love, could someone hold?”
I’ll start by saying I am a Sophie Mackintosh completionist, I’ll read anything she writes, and this one is my favorite so far.
In Mackintosh’s newest, we find ourselves following a young woman in an affair with a married man, both of whom wake up in the city of impermanence, a place only for adulterers. They float in and out of their real lives, and this city of impermanence, which feels like a dream they never want to wake from, until the imperfections start to show, and they wonder is this true love, can the world of importance sustain them, or is it in the absence that they really love one another?
this book felt as though I was drifting through a daydream, one I never wanted to end. I was swept away by Mackintosh’s hazy, hypnotic and atmospheric writing that she always does so well. It was romantic, it was unsettling, it was haunting. The lines between both these worlds blurred, and I felt untethered yet unable to look away. I underlined and tabbed like a woman obsessed, I messaged @kat relentlessly and I haven’t stopped thinking about this one since I finished it. Read it.
I’ll start by saying I am a Sophie Mackintosh completionist, I’ll read anything she writes, and this one is my favorite so far.
In Mackintosh’s newest, we find ourselves following a young woman in an affair with a married man, both of whom wake up in the city of impermanence, a place only for adulterers. They float in and out of their real lives, and this city of impermanence, which feels like a dream they never want to wake from, until the imperfections start to show, and they wonder is this true love, can the world of importance sustain them, or is it in the absence that they really love one another?
this book felt as though I was drifting through a daydream, one I never wanted to end. I was swept away by Mackintosh’s hazy, hypnotic and atmospheric writing that she always does so well. It was romantic, it was unsettling, it was haunting. The lines between both these worlds blurred, and I felt untethered yet unable to look away. I underlined and tabbed like a woman obsessed, I messaged @kat relentlessly and I haven’t stopped thinking about this one since I finished it. Read it.
May 7, 2026
I think I really enjoyed this?? I like the concept and the book is short and to the point. The world of impermenance is appropriately disorientating and full of absolutely nobody I would like to meet. Lots of heavy handed metaphors about why affairs are bad which are poignant in the moment but when you think about it extremely obvious lol.
April 15, 2026
Probably my least favorite Sophie Mackintosh, but it’s Sophie Mackintosh so it’s still going to be beautifully written. I never felt totally bought into Clara and Francis’ relationship, mainly because Francis was mostly a jerk. Also a little repetitive at points — yes, I understand that the city deteriorates along with their relationship — but still a worthwhile read. What can I say, I love Sophie Mackintosh and her weird, otherworldly books, even when they don’t quite work for me.
February 6, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, unfortunately had to DNF around 35%. Author has written some beautiful paragraphs and the concept I found intriguing. But the formatting just didn’t jive with me. The lack of quotation throughout made my brain feel like it was working harder for some reason.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 368 reviews