A New Statesman Book of the Year 2021 A Metro Book of the Year 2021 A Washington Post '10 Best Thriller and Mystery Books of 2021' 'Gripping.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A classy page-turner.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A taut, subtle, postmodern literary thriller.' SUNDAY TIMES When two men meet in a bookshop in Berlin they begin an uneasy friendship. Patrick has a sensational story to tell: a ghostwriter for a Russian oligarch recently found hanged, he says the people who killed his boss are now following him... A twist on the cat-and-mouse narrative, A Lonely Man is about the search for identity and the elastic nature of truth. As the two men's association hurtles towards tragedy, Robert is forced to confront whether actual events are the only things that give a story life, and if some stories are too dangerous to tell. 'A remarkable debut; an accomplished and intricately plotted story.'-JON McGREGOR 'A Lonely Man is a delicate snare of a novel.'-BRANDON TAYLOR 'A thrilling, unnerving novel. a page-turner with exacting syntax and emotional heft.'-CATHERINE LACEY

'To read Mothers is to take a journey through a landscape familiar enough to console, yet strange enough to unsettle. The thrills and dangers of such a journey lie with the unexpectedness of life's undercurrents and our uncertain, unknowable selves. Chris Power's quiet yet compelling touch is reminiscent of Alice Munro and Peter Stamm.' - Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Vagrants

Chris Power's stories are peopled by men and women who find themselves at crossroads or dead ends - characters who search without knowing what they seek. A woman uses her mother's old travel guide to navigate nowhere; a stand-up comic with writer's block performs a fateful gig at a cocaine-fulled bachelor party; on holiday in Greece, a father must confront the limits to which he can keep his daughters safe.

From remote and wild Exmoor to ancient Swedish burial sites and hedonistic Mexican weddings, these stories lay bare the emotional and psychic damage of life, love and abandonment.

Mothers proves the vital importance of short fiction and announces the debut of an exceptional literary voice.