“Mackintosh has a spare and confident hand. . . . lyrical and precise . . . In her work, [she] devises scenarios that are bold and almost aggressively simplified. But her terrain is complexity and contradiction, and in her hands these oppositions twist and turn in on themselves. . . That moment of recognition, in a landscape that is startlingly alien, is the source of Mackintosh’s power." —Katie Kitamura, The New York Times Book Review

"Mackintosh’s writing is so restrained and precise, so attuned to the nuances of longing and regret. . . A deeply romantic novel, replete with little images that stick in the mind." —Los Angeles Review of Books

“Like Severance for relationships, Permanence traps two secret lovers in a sealed-off city built for adulterers, where the affair can run forever . . . Mackintosh is exactly the writer you want for this kind of uncanny desire experiment.” —Oprah Daily

"Inventive and convincing. . . A rich, alluring concept, offering much literary fun" —The Guardian

"Surreal and beautiful." —People 

“The world in Permanence is gripping, disorienting, potent, and alluring. Mackintosh is a master storyteller of the slightly strange and a devout creator of the most inviting dystopias, and this one was a pleasure to explore.” —Chicago Review of Books

"A brilliant parable about desire, infidelity, and devotion. . . A dark gem that asks us to consider the cost of intimacy—I tore through it." —Erin Somers, author of The Ten Year Affair

"I loved this sensuous, moving, and quietly devastating novel. Mackintosh’s portrait of a couple in desperate thrall to romance—and her revelations about the dangers and delights of intimacy, of vulnerability’s risks and rewards—will stay with me for a long time." —Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually

"A haunting and seductive novel which pulses with the possibility, or impossibility, of love.” —Avni Doshi, author of Burnt Sugar

"With Permanence, Sophie Mackintosh turns the novel of adultery inside out. This is the perfect imperfect love story: haunting, unsettling, uncanny” —Lauren Elkin, author of Scaffolding