“I really wish I had written this book. It’s a tragi-comedy set in Ireland after the First World War. A real work of craftsmanship, where the heroine is also the narrator, yet has no idea what is going on. You read it with mounting horror and hilarity as

Is it possible to kill with kindness? As Molly Keane’s Booker Prize–shortlisted dark comedy suggests, not only can kindness be deadly, it just may be the best form of revenge. The novel opens as Aroon St. Charles prepares to serve her invalid mother a splendid luncheon of rabbit mousse, a dish her mother despises. “All my life so far I have done everything for the best reasons and the most unselfish motives,” says Aroon soon after.

In the pages that follow she will make her case, reminiscing about her youth among the hunting-and-fishing classes of Ireland, a faded aristocracy dedicated to distraction even as their fortunes dwindle. Keane’s brilliant sleight of hand is to allow her blinkered heroine to narrate her own development from neglected child to a bitter woman: Aroon understands nothing, yet she reveals all. “Nobody else can touch Molly Keane as a satirist, tragedian, and dissector of human behaviour.” —Maggie O’Farrell “Molly Keane’s Good Behaviour presents a character whose own strict Christian code wreaks havoc on all those around her. Though she herself tells the tale, we somehow see her morality’s disastrous consequences. Hilarious and sinister.” —Allan Gurganus, The New York Times “An extraordinary tour de force of fictional presentation. . . a masterpiece. . . a technically remarkable work, as sharp as a blade . . . . Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy.” —Vogue