Coming soon - April 2021
My Phantoms
Gwendoline Riley
Bridget’s mother is dying. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as ‘Hen’) has always haunted her daughter.
Now, as together they approach the end, Bridget looks back on their tumultuous relationship – the performances and small deceptions – and tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. With so little time left, can these two warring women find a bruised accord?
Publications
First Love
Gwendoline Riley
Translated by
‘A singular, devastating journey into the ungovernable reaches of the heart’ Observer
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017
Neve is a writer in her mid-30s married to an older man, Edwyn. For now they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that led her to this marriage, she tells of other loves and other debts, from her bullying father and her self-involved mother to a musician who played her and a series of lonely flights from place to place.
Drawing the reader into the battleground of her relationship, Neve spins a story of helplessness and hostility, an ongoing conflict in which both husband and wife have played a part. But is this, nonetheless, also a story of love?