Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and the non-fiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism. Parry lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Ernesto and Fidel. Her second novel, Carrion Crow, will be published in 2026.
At CrimeReads the author tagged five "books that continue to inspire me for their bold, unflinching ways of looking at the monstrous man, both the real and fictionalized versions of him." One title on the list:
Vladimir Nabokov, LolitaRead about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.
It is quite an achievement to write a book that gets so perfectly into the mind of a monster that it remains widely misunderstood even seventy years after its initial publication—and an even bigger achievement to write that novel in your third language.
A story purporting to be a tale of love and romance, written from the perspective of a child abuser about the child he abused, Lolita struggled to find a publisher and, when it was released, in France, it was called “sheer unrestrained pornography” by the editor of a British newspaper. The British Home Office was told to seize all imported copies; it was banned in several countries. By the time it was published in the US, in 1958, it’s notoriety was firmly cemented. It has sold fifty million copies since then.
Lolita is a book despised and adored in equal measure, and for the same thing: for its ability to channel the mind of a terrible man. The novel is relentless in its perspective, offering nowhere for the reader to run. They are Humbert Humbert, for three hundred and thirty six pages; they are forced to look at Delores through the eyes of a man who has the most inexcusable, abominable desires.
And by reading the book they are forced to confront the existence of such men, as well as the harm they do. Few books change culture, and even fewer manage to do so while being beautifully written; it is to Nabokov’s immense credit that the opening lines of a book about a paedophile are some of the most widely quoted, even today.
Lolita appears on Catherine Steadman's list of six top books with unreliable narrators, Leo Benedictus's top ten list of evil narrators, Juno Dawson's best banned books list, Jo Nesbø's six favorite books list, Emily Temple's list of ten essential road trip books that aren’t On the Road, Olivia Sudjic's list of eight favorite books about love and obsession, Jeff Somers's list of five best worst couples in literature, Brian Boyd's ten best list of Vladimir Nabokov books, Billy Collins' six favorite books list, Charlotte Runcie's list of the ten best bad mothers in literature, Kathryn Williams's list of fifteen notable works on lust, Boris Kachka's six favorite books list, Fiona Maazel's list of the ten worst fathers in books, Jennifer Gilmore's list of the ten worst mothers in books, Steven Amsterdam's list of five top books that have anxiety at their heart, John Banville's five best list of books on early love and infatuation, Kathryn Harrison's list of favorite books with parentless protagonists, Emily Temple's list of ten of the greatest kisses in literature, John Mullan's list of ten of the best lakes in literature, Dan Vyleta's top ten list of books in second languages, Rowan Somerville's top ten list of books of good sex in fiction, Henry Sutton's top ten list of unreliable narrators, Adam Leith Gollner's top ten list of fruit scenes in literature, Laura Hird's literary top ten list, Monica Ali's ten favorite books list, Laura Lippman's 5 most important books list, Mohsin Hamid's 10 favorite books list, and Dani Shapiro's 10 favorite books list. It is Lena Dunham's favorite book.
--Marshal Zeringue