AS FEATURED ON THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG POWER LIST 2026: a sensual, sharp, and utterly compelling campus novel about grief, reinvention, and the ripple effects of telling lies, by a talented young author

‘Superb … Witty, assured, energisingly original’ GUARDIAN

‘Razor-edged and emotionally rich … Exquisite’ LUCY ROSE, AUTHOR OF THE LAMB

‘A literary star in the making’ MARIE CLAIRE

I had never been good, and there was no point in trying now.

On a small art college campus in upstate New York, Charlotte begins her final year with a lie. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden.

Awkward and insular, Charlotte has never really fit in. But now her sympathetic classmates treat her differently, showing their concern in attention, affection, and, as she begins a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. Perhaps some things are worth lying for no matter how big the lie gets.

But six thousand miles away, in England, her father is very much alive, alone and unhappy in the cramped childhood home Charlotte left behind. She has always kept difficult truths at arms length, but his resolve to visit his distant daughter might just be the one thing she cant control.

Punchy Sprinkled with dry wit The Times

The kind of interior voice that ensnares you The art college campus novel Ive always wanted…. Grace Murray is one of those writers who you can devote yourself to’ CLAIRE KOHDA, AUTHOR OF WOMAN, EATING

The sharpest, meanest of prose in the best possible way. An outstanding debut from author to watch HEATHER DARWENT, AUTHOR OF THE THINGS WE DO TO OUR FRIENDS