Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025

Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for July 2025

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement.

It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season…

In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.

Can you trust the woman next door? The book club was her idea, of course - Alice's. It was her way into our group. A chance to get close. I knew from the day she arrived that she couldn't be trusted. And I was right. Because Alice didn't come to the village for peace and quiet. She came for revenge. Absolutely love addictive psychological thrillers like THOSE PEOPLE, THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR and THE NEIGHBOUR? Then you will be hooked by this edge-of-your-seat novel about the dark secrets that the neighbours of a Cotswolds village are hiding.

Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maurice and Maralyn plan their escape: sell the house, build a boat, set sail for New Zealand. Then, halfway around the world, their beloved boat is struck by a whale and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Alone on a tiny raft, their love is put to the test.

This is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive – not just at sea, but in life.