'Everything about this book is alive' – Maria Sledmere

It's a hot Edinburgh summer, and Roisin’s life is stagnating. She spends her days cancelling plans, skipping work and drinking lukewarm wine in the bathtub with her best friend Eve.

When their wealthy mutual friend Claire offers Roisin a significant amount of money under the guise of ‘freelance work,’ Roisin thinks her luck might finally be changing. But Claire’s proposal is not all it seems, and soon Roisin finds herself trapped. Paralysed by both her intense infatuation with Eve and her secret arrangement with Claire, Roisin must walk a delicate line to avoid losing what matters to her most.

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'It’s a propulsive story, set in Edinburgh, and Thom is a writer of rare talent'

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'A novel that packs a real punch, Summer Hours is such an eloquent an evocative read that you can feel the heat coming off the page, and taste that warm wine'

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'Thom displays great skill in tangling her characters up in a fascinating knot of relationships - some sexual, some platonic, some hovering in the deliciously ambiguous no-man's land in between... Thom's Tardis-like debut novel makes an outsize impression'

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 'A sizzling story of what happens when the lines of friendship are blurred'

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'the most compelling read.... a brilliant coming of age novel, beautifully written and sensitively presented'

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'a vital and vivid examination of life in the modern world,'

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'A love triangle of three women in an Edinburgh heatwave, Summer Hours explores the power-struggles of money, friendship, and desire'

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'A captivating read'

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'Alessandra Thom beings a fresh and unique voice to this evocative read. Filled with wit, humour and insight, Summer Hours is a vivid and compelling read, perfect for fans of Sally Rooney and Julia Armfield'

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'A sizzling debut'

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'Thom writes with precision and tenderness in equal measure—a formidable combination . . . The novel pulses with the anxieties of our precarious age: housing instability, wealth disparity, the weight of familial expectation, the vertiginous uncertainty of young queer life'