SEVEN DAYS

WEDNESDAY Literature / Emma Jane Unsworth

If you ever need some motivation to go on a social media detox, then Mancunian writer Emma Jane Unsworth’s new novel, Adults, is surely a great place to start.

Dark and unsettling, it tells the story of a thirty-something female journalist obsessed with presenting the perfect life on social media.

“If you put something on social media and no-one likes it, do you even exist?” the character asks during one moment of existential crisis.

Already receiving rave reviews, Adults should further enhance Unsworth’s reputation as a writer of engaging, emotionally conflicted female protagonists.

Her second book, Animals, a raucous tale of two friends growing up and then apart, was a massive critical and commercial hit when it was published in 2014.

Five years later, Unsworth adapted that book into a successful movie starring Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawcat.

Now returning with her third novel Adults, Unsworth – currently based in Brighton – is coming home for a handful of special book launch events.

Next week, at Waterstones Deansgate, she’ll be taking part in an ‘in conversation’ event with literary blogger Simon Savidge.

If you can’t make that, she’ll be back again on February 10, at the Burgess Foundation, speaking to fellow author Luke Brown.

Waterstones Deansgate / waterstones.com / 0161 837 3000 / Wednesday / 6.30pm / £5