Author: Ebbott, Hal
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Published on 2 July 2026 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.
Paperback | 320 pages
196 x 131 x 21 | 224g
‘A hard diamond of a novel . . . I have not stopped thinking of it since’ – Coco Mellors‘Every sentence keeps you hanging in the air, waiting for the next punch to the gut’ – Miranda Cowley Heller‘Packs a huge emotional punch. I couldn’t put it down’ – Daily Mail‘A living thing . . . A huge achievement’ – Financial TimesPerfect lives hide terrible secretsHaving emerged from a childhood of poverty and neglect, Amos now has a life that others envy: a brilliant wife, a golden daughter, and a friendship that has anchored him for thirty years. All of that is set to change. In the course of one fateful weekend in a beautiful house upstate, Amos’s life will be undone by a shocking act of violence.
In its aftermath, Amos must ask: when your world collapses, what - and who - will you sacrifice to survive?‘Bracingly honest and affectingly intimate . . . Upends its characters’ lives so ruthlessly and revealingly that it is hard not to take pleasure in a false facade being finally smashed’ – The Guardian‘Masterly’ – John Banville
