Publisher's Synopsis
'A meltingly warm comedy'
10 best new novelists for 2024, Observer
'Poignant yet very funny . . . a lyrical, hypnotic delight' KATHERINE HEINY
'I will never forget these characters: so pained and funny, so brilliantly drawn, wrestled with and forgiven' HELEN GARNER
'It has a bright ring of truth which chimes on every page' CLAIRE FULLER
'I adored every moment. The characters have stayed with me ever since' BELLA MACKIE
'A remarkably assured, moving, melancholy and funny debut' JOHN BANVILLE
Boy-made-good Téo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father - stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Téo: he's got a steady job, a brand-new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view.
Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He's still the boy seeking his father's approval; the young man playing late-night poker with his best friend, unreliable, infuriating Ben Mossam; the one still desperately in love with the enigmatic Lia.
Lia's life, on the other hand, has been transformed: now a single mum to two-year-old Joel, she doesn't have time for anyone - not even herself.
When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of a strange constellation of men - Téo, Vic, Ben - none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home.
