Olivia Sudjic

Sympathy revolves around a twenty-something woman visiting New York who becomes obsessed with an older woman via the social media app Instagram. The book is recognized for addressing generational differences: "A child of the age of algorithms, she notices everything but knows the value and significance of nothing."[12] As for the structure, it resembles the disjointed experience of surfing the internet, thereby reinforcing the story's focus on technology.[3]

The reviews for Sympathy were enthusiastic. The New Republic refers to the novel as "a remarkable debut, and with the arrival of such a novelist we can finally welcome our techno-dystopian future with open arms."[4] According to The New Republic, Sympathy is "The First Great Instagram Novel", dealing with obsession and smartphone technology.[13] The article goes on to say: "Rarely do novels so ostentatiously of the moment succeed so well at gesturing to the universal."[12] The novel was also mentioned in Vanity Fair,[14] The Financial Times,[15] The Spectator,[16] The Telegraph,[17] Elle,[18] Esquire,[19] Star Tribune,[20] The Times,[21] The New Yorker[22] and Vice,[23] among others.

Sudjic began writing Sympathy in 2014 while staying with her grandmother in Manhattan.[24][9] New York City ended up becoming integral to the story, representing the protagonist's "...searching and longing for connection."[25] In the beginning, Sudjic intended to write an historical novel, but changed her mind and set the story in contemporary times.[9] Sympathy has been described as a feminist work, with Sudjic stating that the internet is male-dominated.[26][18]

Exposure, a non-fiction work, was published by Peninsula Press, and named a book of the year for 2018 by the Irish Times, Evening Standard and White Review.[27][28]

Sudjic's third novel Asylum Road was published in 2021 by Bloomsbury.[29] The narrator Anya is from Sarajevo, and survived the siege of that city. The novel is about her disintegration.[30] The title refers to the street in Peckham on which an asylum was located.[31]

Asylum Road was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's 2022 Encore Award[32] and the Society of Authors' 2022 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize.[33]