Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute

Book: The Burnout (October 2023)

By Sophie Kinsella

October 29, 2023

Sasha is well and truly over it all: work (all-consuming), friendships (on the back burner), sex-life (non-existent).  Sasha has hit a brick wall.

Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find solitude, she heads to the Devon resort she loved as a child.  But it’s off-season, the hotel is falling apart, and now she has to share the beach with someone else: a grumpy, stressed-out guy called Finn.  How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on a rock, watching her?  Especially when they don’t agree on burnout cures.  (Sasha: manifesting, wild swimming, secret chocolate bars; Finn: drinking whisky.)

But when curious messages start appearing on the beach, Sasha and Finn are forced to begin talking – about everything.  What’s the mystery?  Why are they both burned out?  What exactly is ‘manifesting’, anyway?

They might discover that they have more in common than they think…