From the award-winning author of the smash hit Send Nudes: an electrifying debut exploring love and desire, chaos and control – and family in all its forms

**Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2026**
**Finalist for the Nota Bene Prize**
**Selected as a Book of the Summer 2025 by the Guardian, The Times, Sunday Times, independent.co.uk, Vogue and Marie Claire**
**Selected as a 2025 book to look out for by the Guardian, Sunday Times, Irish Times, independent.co.uk, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Service95**

‘Raw, original and provoking, Saba Sams is Britain's brightest debut novelist’ Vogue
‘An immersive story about love and the softening borders around what family can be’ Sheena Patel
'A joy to read' The Times
‘An intimate and tender exploration of love's possibilities’ Sophie Mackintosh
'Raw, powerful and beautiful' Observer
‘A nuanced exploration of friendship, queerness and love’ Jessica Andrews
‘I loved this’ Nicola Dinan

Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for ­five years, but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. She spends her nights serving shots and watching, from behind the bar, as Leon flirts with students on the dancefloor.

But then Leon hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar – and her arrival jolts Jules awake for the ­ first time in years. When Nim discovers she’s pregnant, Jules agrees to help. As the months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing, it emerges that Nim has her own unexpected gifts to give.

Now, alone in her small flat, Jules is holding a baby, just twenty-four hours old, who still smells of Nim. But no one knows where Nim is, or if she’s coming back. What could the future – for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby – possibly look like?

Raw, exhilarating, tender and wise, Gunk is an electrifying debut novel exploring love and desire, safety and destruction, chaos and control – and family in all its forms.

"Saba Sams made waves with Send Nudes ... Now the 28-year-old author has written her first novel, about the bond between two women from different generations - and what happens when a baby arrives in the mix" - THE TIMES, The 40 books to look out for in 2025 — the critics’ picks

"Visceral and full-throated, this is fast becoming one of the year’s stand-out books" - SUNDAY TIMES

"A fresh and funny portrait of unexpected motherhood and alternative families ... Raw, tender and unusual." - GUARDIAN, Summer reading: the 50 hottest books to read now

"Gunk is the It novel to be seen with on the beach this summer ... A tale of unconventional parenthood and the fuzzy lines between friend and lover" - THE TIMES, 80 best books to take on holiday this summer

"Gunk had me hooked. It is an intense immersion into the first days of motherhood ... Sams creates an intimacy that is slightly off-kilter and faintly disturbing but also desperately nurturing and loving. The characters are complex and awkward and brittle, with so much unsaid between them all, but Sams leaves us with glimmers of hope by the end for this wonderful family full of the possibilities of love" - GUARDIAN, What we're reading

"A writer clearly worth watching ... Sams’s prose is fresh as new paint ... Raw, powerful and beautiful in the plain-spokenness of a life cracking open to enfold a new being" - OBSERVER

"Bold, cheeky and visceral ... A very modern novel by a very exciting debut novelist" - VOGUE, 10 Of The Biggest Contenders For Book Of The Summer

"At the heart of Gunk is a profound message about the insufficiency of the nuclear family, and a suggestion of possible alternatives. It’s a radical thought, one that Sams is well placed to articulate, and she does so with tenderness" - GUARDIAN, Book of the Day

"Young motherhood reimagined by an exciting new literary voice ... A warm, often funny novel about an unconventional partnership ... It’s a joy to read" - THE TIMES

"A hotly anticipated debut ... The perfect depiction of nights out, complete with sours shots and sticky floors" - independent.co.uk, Best new books to read

"Saba Sams depicts a love growing between two women that is romantic, at times explosive, and evades a label - an exploration of a chosen family that sits in uncertainty" - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

"Sams’ poignant tale parks issues of identity as essentially unknowable, and simply glories in the mess of life" - FINANCIAL TIMES, Best new debut novels

"In Sams’s fictional worlds, the edges between female friendship and desire are as smudged as lipstick after a long night partying ... Sams writes in the disarming voice of a bored teenager with a gift for one-liners and sudden moments of poetry, and it is not hard to see why her work has caused such a stir" - GUARDIAN

"Hotly anticipated ... Vividly drawn" - independent.co.uk, Best new books to read

"A thoughtful, knotty investigation into motherhood, love and belonging." - Marie Claire, The Only Books You'll Want in Your Beach Bag

"An elusive, idiosyncratic book that I would not want to have been written any differently. It deals in relationships that literary conventions were not built to hold ... I wish Jules and Nim the best of luck" - IRISH TIMES

"A fresh look at unconventional relationships and chosen family by the author of the award-winning story collection Send Nudes" - GUARDIAN, the books to look forward to in 2025

"Imbued with an affecting authenticity of feeling, this is an involving exploration of life, love and family forged beyond labels by one of Gen Z’s sharpest observers" - DAILY MAIL

"A literary wunderkind ... Acutely observed and tight in focus" - HARPERS BAZAAR, Five debut female authors to read in 2025

"From the writer of Send Nudes comes the novel Gunk. Yes, we are obsessed with the title. The novel explores the multi-layered relationship between two women, Jules and Nim" - COSMOPOLITAN, The 25 books we can't wait to read in 2025

"This tender fictional debut by celebrated essayist Sams looks at blended families and nontraditional life choices. Prepare for one of the best birth scenes written on the page along with an original and ageless relationship between two women, Jules and Nim, who meet each other behind the bar at Brighton nightclub Gunk. This will make you think differently about parenting, friendships and the goals we set in life" - ELLE, The Cult Books We Can’t Wait To Read In 2025

"An electrifying debut novel ... We loved Sams’ first book Send Nudes ... Gunk feels as though it will be the next talked-about step into Sams’ exploration of womanhood – and we can’t wait to join the discussion" - SERVICE95

"Saba Sams’s short story collection, Send Nudes, caused a stir upon its release in 2022. Since then, she’s won the BBC National Short Story Award and been named one of Granta’s best young British novelists, so it’s safe to say that expectations are high for her debut novel. Gunk is set around a scuzzy student nightclub in Brighton and explores the tangled mess of relationships that emerge between exes Jules and Leon, and 19-year-old bar staffer Nim" - independent.co.uk, The best books to look out for in 2025

"When this landed, I immediately abandoned all other books and dove head-first ... Following two women whose connection sits somewhere between friendship and chosen family, we’re taken through the timeline of their relationship when one takes off without a word after giving birth. I read the book over a weekend and found it incredibly moving" - REFINERY29

"Gunk is the first novel from Saba Sams (Send Nudes), exploring love and family. Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in Brighton" - IRISH TIMES

"Saba Sams’s unsettling, full-throated fiction captures girls and young women on the brink of change" - GUARDIAN, Books of the Year

"Spare, sharp and empathetic, brimful of emotion, energy and empathy" - DAILY MAIL

"Exploring the uneven, hazardous terrain between girlhood and womanhood, Sams expertly reveals its inherent contradictions – the rawness and intense vulnerability of teetering on the edge of something new coupled with the power and euphoria that come with self-discovery … Sams’ unflinching observation yet tender empathy for each of her characters sets her apart as a bold new talent" - STYLIST, Books of the Week

"The earthy resilience and joie de vivre of these stories make for an exhilarating debut ... Sams joins the ranks of writers such as Megan Nolan and Frances Leviston with these acute portraits of the fragile intimacies and euphoric moments snatched by a generation of women coming of age into a precarious future ... In spare, rhythmic sentences, this exhilarating collection captures the light and dark of negotiating relationships, solitude, sexuality and loss" - GUARDIAN

"An ode to the women you drunkenly befriend in club toilets, Send Nudes is an astonishing selection of short stories charting the ebb and flow of girlhood. Saba Sams' authoritative yet witty tone of voice shines through, rendering this one of the most exciting books to come out of 2022" - GLAMOUR, Books of the Year 2022

"Girlhood, womanhood and everything in between. Ten glorious stories – set in clubs at closing time, pub toilets, sweaty music festivals and hazy beach holidays – of young, feral women who are navigating the complexities of growing up, friendships and truly living in their own bodies" - REFINERY29, The Ultimate Gen Z Book Guide For Surviving 2022

"A visceral and compulsive writer, Saba Sams’ ten short stories slalom through the pulsing veins of romance, rejection, and resistance to a world that attempts to box in every young woman. Painfully familiar feelings are dredged up, but it’s so utterly compelling it can be consumed in one sitting. I have fallen in love with Sams’ feral women, found in club toilets, on beach towels, in ferocious friendships, navigating tense family dynamics and body politics" - AnOTHER