This is fiction but the book is heavy with real life. It paints such an authentic picture of the lives of families forced to live in a hotel room because of the lack of emergency social housing. Before reading Nesting, these families were just statistics to me but now they have a voice, a face and my respect. Nesting is not holiday reading but it will leave you with a new perspective on coercive control, homeless families and the strength of maternal love.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025
'Tense, forensically realistic and compulsively readable. A real achievement' SUNDAY TIMES
'Here is a novelist who has powerful news to tell, and an impressive range of narrative gifts with which to tell it' IRISH TIMES
'Should become essential reading for all. Nesting is a novel that truly matters' SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'A moving portrait of life inside the housing system and the courage it…
This is a book of two halves. The first half deals with Frankie's experience in Vietnam. I found this horrific in terms of the injuries she has to nurse and the conditions the medical staff lived in - so much so that I almost abandoned the book. But I am so glad that I didn't! The second part of the book deals with how the nurses are treated on their return from Vietnam and that is even more of an eyeopener! They are treated appallingly. I learned so much about the US and the Vietnam war from reading this book.
From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.
“Women can be heroes, too.”
When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected…
Island Song is a book of contrasts. The reader travels from the bright and colourful island of St. Lucia to grey and dismal London. We experience the friendly, inclusive Caribbean culture and then witness the hostility and suspicion of people in 1950s UK. We get to know Agnes and her adventurous, determined spirit compared with her older, much more cautious sister, who is a home bird. Pepsi Demacque-Crockett weaves all of these threads together to create an absorbing, timely, thought-provoking but easy-to-read novel. It is reminiscent of ‘A Small Island’ by Andrea Levy and would make a great book club read.
One sister found the courage to leave, the other must find the courage to live...
From the Caribbean to 1950s London, an epic story of finding home, Island Song is an atmospheric and lyrical debut of compelling storytelling, for fans of Louise Hare and Kristin Hannah.
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'Profound and moving'
Woman's Own
'Engrossing ... An enjoyable debut' Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City
'Inspirational ... filled with emotion and vibrancy' Heat
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'We are born of fighters ... slaves wanting to be free. Never let anyone take away the fire in your belly, my daughters...'
Fiona Ormeroyd has always planned her life down to the last detail. But on the day of her retirement, her carefully organised world unravels when her boyfriend, Joe, arrives on her doorstep. Instead of being there for their weekly rendezvous, Joe announces that his flat is flooded, and he thinks it is the perfect time for them to move in together. Fiona likes her own space and this certainly wasn’t part of her plan. Then Joe’s daughter turns up eight months pregnant with nowhere to go. Fiona has no choice but to let them both stay. Suddenly Fiona has a full house and is way out of her comfort zone. But just as she starts to regain control, an unexpected revelation shakes everything she thought she knew about life and love.
Now Fiona must decide: does she stay in control, or surrender to the chaos of love?
This later-in-life, feel-good, friends-to-lovers romance from an award-winning author is perfect for fans of Caroline James, Cary J Hansson, Maddie Please, Judy Leigh and Helen Bridgett.
