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‘A stunning multi-generational kaleidoscope of London’ Bernardine Evaristo

‘A wise, tender novel about family and love’ Monica Ali

After fifty years in London, Alice wants to return home to Nigeria. Her three daughters are divided on whether she stays or goes, and in the wake of their father’s death, the imagined stability of the family begins to fray. Meanwhile youngest sister Melissa has never let go of a love she lost, and Michael in return, even though he is now married to Nicole, is haunted by the failed perfection of the past.

Spanning three generations and set against the shadows of a nation in turmoil, these ordinary people confront fundamental questions. How to raise our children? How to do right by our parents? And how, in the midst of everything, do we satisfy ourselves?

‘Heart and humour in abundance . . . The people on the page are real and raw’ The Times

‘So arresting, characterful, and so beautiful’ Candice Carty-Williams

‘I adored it. Her writing is exquisite: every sentence a jewel’ Elizabeth Day

Publisher Review

Evans’s writing is…subtle but grounded, lyrical yet accessible. Her characters feel real, their interactions – particularly that tense space where the political and domestic meet – nuanced * Sunday Times * [An] ambitious tale of a family in contemporary London… [Evans’s] wide cast of women are deftly drawn. There’s heart and humour in abundance * The Times * The sheer vitality of Evans’s dynamic prose… renders almost hypnotic her constant toggling between the prosaic and the metaphysical. There are some deft set pieces too, dramatising intimacy’s most finely nuanced dynamics * Guardian * A warm but devastating narrative, dealing with the fallout of the Grenfell tragedy… Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable * Harper’s Bazaar, *Books to Look Out For 2023* * One of our most outstanding writers . . . A House for Alice [is] a stunning multi-generational kaleidoscope of London . . . Evans writes with exceptional profundity and is exemplary at exploring the inner workings of her fictional characters through a prose style so poetic you want to languish in her sentences. * Bernardine Evaristo, Vogue *