From the highly-acclaimed author of SMALL PLEASURES - longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021
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In 1976 four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them...

And repercussions are just what Guy doesn't need: his wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane's sanity, and now even God's gone quiet on him.

As for Nina, she's having enough trouble with her son, James. He's got exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he's on drugs. Nina certainly won't welcome any ghosts from the past.

Life isn't going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable.

Praise for Clare Chambers:

'A wonderful novel. I loved it' Nina Stibbe

'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans

'Gorgeous... If you're looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more' Pandora Sykes on SMALL PLEASURES

'An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly devastating' Mail on Sunday

'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian

'An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish' The Sunday Times