Description

*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023*
‘Delicate and strong… I loved it’ Maggie O’Farrell’
‘Darkly vivacious’ Guardian
‘Glorious. Unforgettable’ Melissa Harrison
‘A keen eye… immaculate’ Financial Times
‘A triumph’ Daily Telegraph

Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly – her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.

Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday’s book. Soon they are in and out of each others’ homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo’s polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.

Publisher Review

What a glorious, unforgettable character Vita is. And I loved Sunday's voice too, so unique, right from the off. It showed me things about autism that will stay with me. A genuinely valuable book, but more importantly I enjoyed being inside its world -- Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow's is a distinct and poetic new voice. This novel about the complex desires behind our closest relationships is undercut with the darkness of Sicilian folklore: the fisherman who promises away his child; the lover who is a wolf; a caged magpie; burning fields -- Clare Pollard, poet and author of Delphi Funny, lyrical, deft and devastating. Full of longing and love -- Amy Sackville, author of Painter to the King