Description

‘Lyrical’ Daily Mail
‘Beautiful’ Spectator
‘Skilled’ Financial Times
‘Vulnerable’ Guardian
‘Deft’ Independent
‘Profound’ Observer

‘The beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.’

Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He’s been living in London for years – some of them good – but he’s stuck in a relationship he can’t move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can’t shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.

Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.

Publisher Review

Norris hits this universal note squarely and successfully. Undercurrent is a defiantly unfashionable, heartfelt, emotionally vulnerable novel about mothers and sons, letting go of the past and saying what you need to say to your loved ones before it's too late. * Guardian * A profound meditation on dealing with loss and finding your moorings in destabilising times * Observer * Always skilled at creating character and voice... Norris demonstrates how seemingly insignificant moments impact a life. * Financial Times * Beautiful and useful. His writing untangles the knots that tie us down, to families, to history. He writes to free us and deserves our thanks. * Spectator * Lyrical, yearning, elegiac * Daily Mail *