Winner of the McKitterick Prize 2025 Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2025 Runner up for the the ADCI Literary Prize 2025 'Absolutely loved this. Funny and heartbreaking in equal measure' DOUGLAS STUART 'Glorious . . . so unusual, so moving, so memorable' GUARDIAN 'Tom Newlands may make several prize lists for his stunning debut' OBSERVER 'This isn't just a great first novel; it's a great novel. And Cora, the mad, chaotic, wise, funny narrator, is one of the great characters' RODDY DOYLE 'It's not every day you read a modern classic. But this feels destined to become one. A thunderous achievement' NATHAN FILER Fife, in the blazing hot summer of 1994. Cora Mowat's mates don't understand her, but then Cora Mowat doesn't understand herself. She's stuck on a seaside council estate full of dafties, old folk and seagulls, with a thousand dreams and a restless brain that won't behave. She's dying to escape but unsure of what the future holds - if it holds anything at all for a girl like
