Book Club: Let's Talk About ‘The Catch,' by Yrsa Daley-Ward

New York Times

25-07-2025

In this month's installment of the Book Review Book Club, we're discussing 'The Catch,' the debut novel by the poet and memoirist Yrsa Daley-Ward. The book is a psychological thriller that follows semi-estranged twin sisters, Clara and Dempsey, who were babies when their mother was presumed to have drowned in the Thames.
The novel begins decades later, when Clara sees something strange: A woman who looks just like their mother is stealing a watch. Clara believes this is her mother, and wants to welcome her back into her life. Dempsey is less certain, in part because the woman doesn't seem to have aged a day. She believes the woman is a con artist because it's simply not possible for her to be their mother … right?
What's real? What's not? And what does that mean for the lives of these struggling sisters? Daley-Ward unpacks it all in her deliciously slippery novel. On this episode, the Book Club host MJ Franklin talks about 'The Catch' with his colleagues Jennifer Harlan and Sadie Stein.
Other books mentioned in this week's episode:
'The Other Black Girl,' by Zakiya Dalila Harris
'The Haunting of Hill House,' by Shirley Jackson
'Wish Her Safe at Home,' by Stephen Benatar
'Erasure,' by Percival Everett (you can listen to our book club conversation about it here)
'Playworld,' by Adam Ross (you can listen to our book club conversation about it here)
'The House on the Strand,' by Daphne du Maurier
'Grief Is the Thing With Feathers,' by Max Porter
'The Furrows,' by Namwali Serpell
'Dead in Long Beach, California,' by Venita Blackburn
'The Vanishing Half,' by Brit Bennett
'Death Takes Me,' by Cristina Rivera Garza
'Audition,' by Katie Kitamura
We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to [e-mail].