Description

‘Beautiful … Incredibly moving’ ANN PATCHETT

‘Sun-saturated prose’
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

‘A rich tale you can’t put down’
iNEWS

‘Deeply satisfying … beautifully written’ POLLY SAMSON

A family secret. A new love. The chance to start again.

Margaret’s childhood is one of Saturday morning pancakes and sunlit swimming pools behind white picket fences. Then, one fateful summer, everything changes. A line is crossed and the simple pleasures of girlhood slip away.

Twenty-five years later, Margaret is newly divorced with two young daughters of her own. She’s starting over while discovering the pleasures of a new boyfriend. But, returning to the family home at her mother’s beckoning, she finds herself swept up in the unspoken truth of that long ago summer. She must now reckon with what binds the past to the present, one generation to the next, and safety to the freedom we most desire.

A must-read novel of the summer in Sunday Times Style, Elle and Good Housekeeping.

‘Jones takes her cues from writers like John Cheever, Richard Yates and Virginia Woolf’
NEW YORK TIMES

‘A moving, funny and searing look at childhood, family and marriage. I adored it’ CHRIS WHITAKER, author of All the Colours of the Dark

‘Shattering, but also witty, arch, probing and hopeful’ PANDORA SYKES, in Sunday Times Style

‘An unsettling narrative of family secrets and buried wounds’
ELLE

‘Thrillingly virtuosic – beguiling, unsettling and stylish’ JESSICA STANLEY, author of Consider Yourself Kissed

Publisher Review

‘Beautiful, bruising, incisive and heartfelt. Sleep takes a moving, maddening, funny and searing look at childhood, family and marriage. I adored it’ Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colours of the Dark

‘Sleep marks the arrival of an astonishing new voice in the world of literary fiction. Honor Jones writes with honesty and courage about life’s complications and contradictions. This novel is propulsive and funny and heartbreaking’ J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs

‘A novel of quiet, devastating beauty. Honor Jones recalls a suburban childhood with such cool, funny precision – but Sleep also has a real heart, beating with courage and rage. I loved it’ Abigail Dean, author of Girl A

‘Sleep is thrillingly virtuosic – beguiling, unsettling and stylish’ Jessica Stanley, author of A Great Hope

‘Honor Jones’ mesmerizing prose turns a tragic yet triumphant story of lost innocence and enduring trauma into a magnetic, breathtaking novel. I could not put it down and will be recommending it to everyone I know’ Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

‘Sleep is a haunting and beautiful novel about a desperate attempt to live in the present despite the tidal pull of the past. Mother, brother and ex-husband all have strong opinions about what happened to Margaret and who she needs to be now, but she refuses to live inside their definitions. It’s a quiet brand of heroism that I found to be incredibly moving’ Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake

‘Heartbreaking, sexy, and full of humour … With elegant language and profound insight, Honor Jones transforms a story of family secrets into something utterly fresh, original, and exhilarating’ Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming