Published in 2021
208 pages
Gwendoline Riley was born in London in 1979 and has been hailed as one of the most
significant young British writers. She is is the author of First Love, which was shortlisted for the
Women’s Prize for Literature, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, and won the
Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; Cold Water, Sick Notes, Joshua Spassky and Opposed Positions.
She has also been awarded a Betty Trask Award and a Somerset Maugham Award, and has
been shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2018, the Times Literary Supplement
named her as one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today.
What is this book about?
Bridget’s mother is dying. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as ‘Hen’) has always haunted her daughter. Now, as together they approach the end, Bridget looks back on their tumultuous relationship – the performances and small deceptions – and tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides.
With so little time left, can these two warring women find a bruised accord?