FROM THE MULTI-AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF ONLY HERE, ONLY NOW
WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025

'A beautiful novel, written with grace, clarity and tenderness'
Scotsman

'Newlands writes beautifully about the small, easily missed moments through which life and love are revealed'
Nathan Filer

'Newlands is always alive to the everyday, offhand beauty of the world. Remarkable'
Herald

Frazer and Caitlin have come a long way without ever leaving their dead-end town. They were teenage sweethearts but years later, life's got serious: the flat they share is barely habitable, money is tight, and their autistic son is struggling at school.

Caitlin dreams of fresh carpets and clean walls, but for Frazer Apex Court is the only home he has known. It's where his parents lived and died and where the memory of them remains.

He's asked Caitlin to marry him twice. She tries to leave most weeks. They still love each other - but is it enough?

Startlingly original, this blistering and timely new novel confirms Tom Newlands as one of the brightest talents of his generation.

"A beautiful novel, written with grace, clarity and tenderness. Newlands conveys the generational inheritance of our political past and present with subtlety" - Scotsman

"A gorgeous, sad vision of marginal lives, full of love and grief and anger and pain. Newlands is always alive to the everyday, offhand beauty of the world. Remarkable" - Herald