A bold, thought-provoking novel that will compel and disquiet in equal measure, about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the secrets we bury; 'the best novel of 2018, by far' (Cressida Connolly, Spectator)

A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 - CHOSEN BY THE OBSERVER, NEW STATESMAN AND SPECTATOR

1970s London. Ralph, an up-and-coming composer, has gone to visit Edmund Greenslay in his riverside home. At the heart of the house's wild bliss he finds Edmund's nine-year-old daughter Daphne, flitting, sprite-like, through the house's colourful rooms and unruly garden. From the moment their lives collide Ralph is consumed by an obsession to make Daphne his.

Decades later, Daphne watches her own daughter come of age and is confronted with the truth of her own childhood - and a devastating act of violence that has lain hidden for decades.

Sofka Zinovieff had fallen in love with Greece as a student, but little suspected that years later she would, return for good with an expatriate Greek husband and two young daughters. This book is a wonderfully fresh, funny, and inquiring account of her first year as an Athenian. The whole family have to come to grips with their new life and identities--the children start school and tackle a new language, and Sofka's husband, Vassilis, comes home after half a lifetime away. Meanwhile, Sofka resolves to get to know her new city and become a Greek citizen, which turns out to be a process of Byzantine complexity. As the months go by, Sofka's discovers how memories of Athens' past haunt its present in its music, poetry, and history. She also learns about the difficult art of catching a taxi, the importance of smoking, the unimportance of time-keeping, and how to get your Christmas piglet cooked at the baker's.