Small Pleasures : Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

Published 29/04/2021 | Paperback / softback,
Description:

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021’A WORD-OF-MOUTH HIT’ Evening Standard ‘A very fine book… It’s witty and sharp and reads like something by Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, without ever feeling like a pastiche’David Nicholls’Perfect’India Knight

‘Beautiful’ Jessie Burton’Wonderful’Richard Osman

‘Miraculous’Tracy Chevalier

‘A wonderful novel. I loved it’Nina Stibbe ‘Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind’ Lissa Evans ‘This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I honestly don’t want you to be without it’Lucy Mangan’Gorgeous… If you’re looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more’

Pandora Sykes’Remarkable… Small Pleasures is no small pleasure’The Times’An irresistible novel – wry, perceptive and quietly devastating’Mail on Sunday’Chambers’ eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity’ Guardian’An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish’ The Sunday Times

1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and – possibly – happiness. But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay.

Book of the Year for: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Metro, Spectator, Red Magazine and Good Housekeeping