If you didn't need me - Synopsis

Sarah Butler

If You Didn't Need Me is a dark, psychological novel exploring sexual obsession and control. Rich with descriptions of food and place it charts the destructive relationship between two former class-mates now in their early thirties in London.

As with Expecting Rain, I find I'm drawn to writing about unlikely meetings and subsequent relationships; about home and exile, and the intricacies of family relationships. If You Didn't Need Me came from an interest in 'quarter-life' crises: I wanted to explore what would happen if someone set on one way of life (middle class, professional, engaged) stepped off the conveyor belt and took the risks they'd been brought up not to.