**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2023**

**A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR**
**A GRAZIA BOOK OF THE YEAR**
**SELECTED FOR MALALA'S BOOK CLUB**

'Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People' MEG MASON, author of SORROW AND BLISS

'Haunting and bleakly compelling ... A writer of promise' SUNDAY TIMES

'An absorbing debut about sex and power' GUARDIAN

'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES

‘One of the buzziest debut novels this spring’ VOGUE

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Anna is struggling to afford life in London as she trains to be a singer. During the day, she vies to succeed against her course mates with their discreet but inexhaustible streams of cultural capital and money, and in the evening she sings jazz at a bar in the City to make ends meet.

Here she meets Max, a financier fourteen years older than her. Over the course of one winter, Anna’s intoxication oscillates between her hard-won moments on stage, where she can zip herself into the skin of her characters, and nights spent with Max in his glass-walled flat overlooking the city.

But Anna’s fledgling career demands her undivided attention, and increasingly – whether he necessarily wills it or not – so does Max…

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'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES
'A beautifully written examination of the psychology of sex, power, ambition and love' DAILY MAIL