Why We Love it:

"This was my favourite read in 2024. This is an absolutely phenomenal debut, and it is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish reading it. Exploring a family whose secrets are so tightly wound that the truth begins to seep through the cracks, we get a glimpse into the long-felt effects of intergenerational family trauma within a post-war context. Questions of legacies, guilt, and national identity are explored with such nuance in
this magnificent book which recently took home the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction."

- Ev, Assistant Manager

About the Book:

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement.

It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season…In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point.

What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.