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*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023*
‘Delicate and strong… I loved it’ Maggie O’Farrell’
‘Darkly vivacious… mesmerising’ Guardian
‘Immaculate’ Financial Times
‘A triumph’ Daily Telegraph
For readers who loved Sorrow and Bliss or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – an unforgettable story of a mother and daughter whose lives are upended when a charming new couple move in next door.
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, teenaged daughter.
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 beneath Vita’s charm lies a desperation and a certain entitled ambition – to have a daughter just like Dolly, all to herself.