Lauren Sanders has just published a new book, With or Without You, a tightly-written piece of work that follows on from her award-winning debut novel Kamikaze Lust.

With or Without You is the story of Lillian Ginger Speck, a young woman, a nobody, who becomes obsessed with Brooke Harrison and who, at the start of the book, is in prison for killing her. As the novel unfolds we find alternative narratives through a biography of Harrison, and so the story expands into something bigger than Speck's own observations. What is Speck's true involvement with Harrison? How trustworthy is her grip on reality? Who is Brooke Harrison, really? How did Lily get to this point in the first place? These are the questions that the book tries to answer.

Sanders explores many themes in With or Without You, but celebrity, fame, obsession are never far away. It's a long time since I read a book that shines such a relentless light on the disturbing effects of American (and, by extension, the world's?) pop culture. It's a book that reminds me of a Todd Solondz film. But it's more than that, Sanders' characters exist within a moral and spiritual vacuum. From Lily's coke-snorting, upwardly mobile parents, to the object of her first obsession, Blair the flight attendant, the author introduces characters who are all about superficial success, who have no real substance, or whose truth is somewhat ugly. The thuggish women that Lily encounters in prison are thoroughly charming in comparison.

What I especially liked about With or Without You was the way that Sanders' presents Speck (who really is as insignificant a person as a speck) and Harrison. They are worlds apart, but they appear as distorted mirror images of each other too. The author's prose is razor-sharp, her writing is incredibly imaginative and accomplished. I also loved her prison scenes, which seemed to echo lesbian pulp fiction of the past.

With or Without You is a slow novel, it's not an easy book to read, you have to dig in, take your time, allow it to flow over you. The characters are not stereotypes, you have to listen to them carefully in order to work them out. But it is a rewarding and original piece of work.

This brings me to say that I'm grateful to independent publishers like Akashic, who are taking risks with writers like Sanders and I hope that they continue to place edgy, contemporary, intelligent and vital works like this out in the world.

Read our interview with Lauren Sanders.

With or Without You by Lauren Sanders
Published by: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1888451696
Price: £6.99

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