Nightingale Point: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2020A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK* * *THE DEBUT NOVEL FROM THE COSTA SHORT STORY AWARD WINNER‘A sharp | funny | wonderful writer’ Diana Evans | bestselling author of Ordinary People‘A stunning debut that heralds a new and exciting voice in fiction’ Mike Gayle | bestselling author of All The Lonely People‘Compelling . . . finely crafted | compassionate’Guardian‘A warm | confident writer with the lightest of touches’Observer* * *On an ordinary Saturday morning in 1996 | the residents of Nightingale Point wake up to their normal lives and worries.Mary has a secret life that no one knows about | not even Malachi and Tristan | the brothers she vowed to look after.Malachi had to grow up too quickly. Between looking after Tristan and nursing a broken heart | he feels older than his twenty-one years.Tristan wishes Malachi would stop pining for Pamela. No wonder he's falling in with the wrong crowd | without Malachi to keep him straight.Elvis is trying hard to remember to the instructions his care worker gave him | but sometimes he gets confused and forgets things.Pamela wants to run back to Malachi but her overprotective father has locked her in and there's no way out.It's a day like any other | until something extraordinary happens. When the sun sets | Nightingale Point is irrevocably changed and somehow | through the darkness | the residents must find a way back to lightness | and back to each other.* * *What readers are saying about Nightingale Point:‘A beautiful and heartbreaking story about working-class people and their lives both before and after tragedy’‘A triumphant debut . . . This book pops | fizzes and sparkles to life’‘A book I didn't want to put down. Full of rich characters | beautifully described. It made me cry several times. Highly recommended’‘A must read masterpiece’