Diana Evans

**WINNER OF THE ORANGE AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS**

'A remarkable first novel...vibrant...exotic' Sunday Times

Discover the critically acclaimed debut from the Women's Prize-shortlisted author of Ordinary People

Identical twins, Georgia and Bessi Hunter, live in the loft of 26 Waifer Avenue. It is a place of beanbags, nectarines and secrets, and visitors must always knock before entering. Down below there is not such harmony. Their Nigerian mother puts cayenne pepper on her Yorkshire pudding and has mysterious ways of dealing with homesickness; their father angrily roams the streets of London, prey to the demons of his Derbyshire upbringing.

Forced to create their own identities, the Hunter children build a separate universe. Their elder sister Bel discovers sex, high heels and organic hairdressing whilst the twins prepare for a flapjack empire. It is when the reality comes knocking that the fantasies of childhood start to give way. How will Georgia and Bessi cope in a world of separateness and solitude, and which of them will be stronger?

'Hugely assured and very moving' Mark Haddon

'Diana Evans's fiction is emotionally intelligent, dark, funny, moving. The sheer energy in her novels is enthralling. A brilliant craftswoman, a master of the form, she makes the reader ask important questions of themselves and makes them laugh at the same time' Jackie Kay, British Council and National Centre for Writing's International Showcase on Britain's 10 best BAME writers

Winner of the British Book Award for deciBel Writer of the Year
Shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award
Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Best First Book Award
Shortlisted for the Times/Southbank Show Breakthrough Award
Recipient of the Betty Trask Award
Longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

After fifty years in London, Alice wants to live out her days in the land of her birth. Her three children are divided on whether she stays or goes.** 'Alice was thinking about her own next world and her own castle, which was not in Kingsbury or in Kilburn. It was far away from here, out in the fields near the edge of Benin City, a little house, long in the dreaming, which her relatives had been building for her for when it was time to go home . . .' In the wake of their father's death, the imagined stability of the family begins to buckle.

Meanwhile youngest daughter Melissa is forging a new life but has never let go of a love she lost. Michael too remains haunted by the failed perfection of their past, even within the sturdy walls of his marriage to the sparkling Nicole. As Alice's final decision draws closer, all that is hidden between Melissa and her sisters, Michael and Nicole, rises to the surface . . . Set against the shadows of Grenfell and a country in turmoil, Diana Evans's ordinary people confront fundamental questions. How should we raise our children? How to do right by our parents? And how, in the midst of everything, can we satisfy ourselves?

South London, 2008. Two couples find themselves on the brink of acceptance or revolution. Melissa has a new baby, and Michael still loves Melissa but can’t quite get close enough to her to stay faithful. Meanwhile out in the suburbs, Stephanie is happy with Damian and their three children, but the death of Damian’s father has thrown him into crisis. Are they all just in the wrong place? Are any of them prepared to take the leap?