Kit de Waal & Anjali Joseph

The Trick to Time is an unforgettable love story from Kit de Waal, the author of the Costa shortlisted and Irish Novel of the Year award-winning novel, My Name is Leon. In Birmingham in 1972 Mona is a young Irish girl in a big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in town, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. They embark upon a dizzying love affair, a whirlwind marriage, an unexpected pregnancy – before a sudden tragedy tears them apart. Decades later, Mona pieces together the memories of the years that separate them. But can she ever learn to love again? The Trick to Time is an unforgettable tale of grief, longing, and a love that lasts a lifetime.

“De Waal excels at bringing out the humanity of characters leading small lives on the fringe of huge social and political forces, struggling bravely not to be crushed by them.” The Guardian

“De Waal is excellent at showing how the past continues to live in the present, and at keeping her readers guessing. In this well-paced, well-plotted novel, the key twist is saved for the end.” Irish Independent

In The Living a tender, lyrical, and often funny novel, Anjali Joseph, shines a light on everyday life, illuminating its humour, beauty, and truth. This is the story of two lives. Claire is a young single mother working in one of England’s last surviving shoe factories, her adult life formed by a teenage relationship. Is she ready to move on from memory and the routine of her days? Arun, an older man in a western Indian town, makes hand-sewn chappals at home. A recovered alcoholic, now a grandfather, he negotiates the newfound indignities of old age while returning in thought to the extramarital affair he had years earlier. These lives are woven through with the ongoing discipline of work and the responsibility and tedium of family life. Lives laced with the joys of old friendship, the pleasure of sex, and the redemptive kindness of one’s own children. This is the story of the living.

“Joseph’s is a deep and unusual talent; she attends to questions for which not every novelist is equipped. The Living is an exceptional, unexpected work.” The Guardian