The Most Fun We Ever Had

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020. 'A literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler ... an outstanding debut, assured and highly enjoyable' - Observer * 'Should appeal to fans of Maria Semple, Emma Straub and Jennifer Egan ... A moving, immersive, often very funny study of family and sisterhood' - Sunday Times * 'As good as Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections or Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad; it is almost impossible to believe that it is a debut. The Most Fun We Ever Had is as good as books come' - Telegraph * 'Like Meg Wolitzer. A forensic dissection of family past and present, I loved it. If you like reading about relationships, this one is for you' - Pandora Sykes

MEET THE SORENSON FAMILY. MARILYN has somehow fallen into motherhood and spent four decades married to DAVID, who's pretty certain he loves her more than anyone has ever loved another person. WENDY, their eldest, a cause for concern, soothes herself with drink after being widowed young, while VIOLET, lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mother, is disturbed by the reappearance of a son placed for adoption fifteen years earlier. LIZA, a professor, is pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves and GRACE, their dawdling youngest daughter, lives a lie that no one in her family suspects.

'A gripping and poignant ode to a messy, loving family in all its glory' - Madeline Miller, author of Circe and The Song of Achilles * 'Everything about this brilliant debut cuts deep: the humor, the wisdom, the pathos' - Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers