[1] Widowed Ruth is living a solitary life in her New South Wales beach house when, one night, she believes she is visited by a tiger.

It is depicted with extreme realism...At the heart of this novel, McFarlane is describing a very sad and inevitable situation, one that even the highest in the land properly fear: to be old and helpless, and potentially someone else’s prey.

Here is domestic realism, the beach hamlet acutely observed, but with a resident tiger, secrets, lies, and a very banal but nonetheless venal conspiracy.

"[2] In The Guardian reviewer Justine Jordan found much to like with the book: "In Fiona McFarlane's impressive debut, widowed Ruth senses a tiger prowling around her isolated New South Wales beach house: a flight of fancy that foreshadows the arrival of a far more dangerous beast.

"[3] After the novel's initial publication in Australia by Penguin in 2013,[1] it was reprinted as follows: The novel was also translated into Czech in 2013, Polish, Korean, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, German, Chinese and French in 2014, and Russian and Japanese in 2015.