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About the book

'Meltingly warm'
OBSERVER, 10 BEST NEW NOVELISTS FOR 2024

'A beautiful, funny tale of London and lives new and old'
SUNDAY TIMES

'A spirit-lifting debut'
DAVID MITCHELL, author of Cloud Atlas

'Poignant yet very funny . . . Tom Lamont writes in clear, swift prose about the power struggles that exist in even the most loving of families and the longest of friendships. A lyrical, hypnotic delight'
KATHERINE HEINY, author of Games and Rituals

'I will never forget these characters: so pained and funny, so brilliantly drawn, wrestled with and forgiven'
HELEN GARNER, author of The Children's Bach

'I adored every moment. The characters have stayed with me ever since'
BELLA MACKIE, author of How To Kill Your Family

'It has a bright ring of truth which chimes on every page'
CLAIRE FULLER, author of Unsettled Ground

'Explores parenthood, responsibility, freedom and faith . . . Immersive and finely observed'
THE BOOKSELLER, Editor's Choice

Local boy Téo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father - stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Téo: he's got a steady job, a brand-new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view.

Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He's still the boy seeking his father's approval; the young man playing late-night poker with his best friend, unreliable, infuriating Ben Mossam; the one still desperately in love with the enigmatic Lia Woods.

Lia's life, on the other hand, has been transformed: now a single mum to two-year-old Joel, she doesn't have time for anyone - not even herself.

When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of an odd constellation of men - Téo, Vic, Ben - none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home.