‘Beautiful . . . As provocative as it is tender’ Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace

The Brooke family are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home – twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone – to bury Philip: husband, father and the blinding sun around which they have all orbited for as long as they can remember.

Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, has dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defence against the coming climate catastrophe. Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn. Each believes their father has given them his blessing, setting them on a collision course with each other.

Isa has long suspected that her father thought only of himself, and hopes to seek out her childhood love, who still lives on the estate, to discover whether it is her feelings for him that are creating the fault lines in her marriage.

And then there is Clara, who arrives in their midst from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture all the dreams on which they’ve built their lives.

‘The English country house novel reimagined for our times … Exceptionally well-drawn’ Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

‘A book that asks important questions about legacy – familial, historical and global – and which seeks to answer them with delicate insight and beautiful prose’ Elizabeth Day

‘Hauntingly beautiful . . . This is a novel I will return to again and again’ Louisa Adjoa Parker

‘Albion balances the reality of who the English were against the hope of who we might become’ Richard Beard, author of The Day That Went Missing

One of them is a writer. She is travelling with her husband and young daughter, as her faith in her marriage, and the future itself, is foundering. She has come to the White Rock in the hope of excavating a beginning from the rubble of many different endings.

Here she will find the echoes of many stories: of conquest and resistance, of betrayal and belief, of the many different forms of violence and love. Stories that have already unravelled, and stories that might yet illuminate a passage through these uncertain times …

‘Poetic, philosophical and wildly captivating… I swam in this book and didn’t want to come up for air‘ Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals and Adults
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They are separating, she and her husband, after two decades together.
This fact is new.
Only really a fact for a few weeks or so. Before that it was a possibility – one potential outcome among many. But now it appears to be, unequivocally, the case.
There are many ways of telling the tale …
There are many different sides to every story …

The White Rock stands, ancient and sacred, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Four people, across four centuries, each navigating ruptures to the world they know, are irresistibly drawn to it.

A British writer travels in 2020 with her husband and young daughter to give thanks for the birth of their child. She looks to the White Rock for answers, even as her faith in her marriage, and the future itself, is unravelling.

An American rock star in 1969 is in the final act of his self-destruction. On the run from the law, from his rabid fans and an America burning with the fever of the Vietnam War, he washes up at the edge of Mexico, hoping to lose, or maybe find himself.

A Yoeme girl is torn from her homeland at the turn of the twentieth century and taken by force to the coast. As her future is recast in the name of progress and power, she turns to the stories of her people, to resist, and to survive.

And in 1775 a young Spanish naval officer, preparing to set sail from the White Rock to continue the conquest of the Pacific coast, appears to lose his grip on reality, with far-reaching and fatal consequences.

And as they each find themselves at the end of the story they have lived by, their tales echo, breathtakingly, through time . . .
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‘So bold and wild, but controlled and fierce. It reminded me of Cloud Atlas, but it’s very much itself. Stunning’ Russell T. Davies, writer of It’s A Sin

‘Absolutely a story for our times, and a fiercely important one, too’ Clover Stroud, author of The Red of my Blood

‘I loved it . . . It is full of wisdom, intricate and emotional, and it will linger in my head for a long time’ Dave Haslam, author of Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor

‘If you wished Normal People had tackled female friendship, try Expectation‘ GRAZIA
‘Profoundly intelligent and humane. Deserves to feature on many a prize shortlist’ GUARDIAN
‘A brilliant exploration of friendship, feminism and thwarted ambition’ PANDORA SYKES
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What happened to the women we were supposed to become?

Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry – and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends.

Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life?

The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of the year, EXPECTATION is a novel about finding your way: as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a rebel.

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‘Thoughtful, beautifully written, honest. A sensual book. I URGE YOU TO READ IT’ MARIAN KEYES

‘Beautiful, sharp, moving. I urge you to read it’‘ ELIZABETH DAY

‘A brilliant exploration of friendship, feminism and thwarted ambition’ PANDORA SYKES

‘I loved it … 10 out of 10′ BRYONY GORDON

‘Will resonate with approximately 99% of women’ RED MAGAZINE summer pick

‘One of the most intensely readable novels this year’ METRO

‘One of our most gifted contemporary writers’ WATERSTONES

‘SO GOOD. A ‘What they did next’ story of characters from a Sally Rooney novel’ SARAH FRANKLIN

‘The story of 3 college friends, if you’re a fan of Sally Rooney, you’ll love EXPECTATION’ IRISH EXAMINER

‘A must-read’ FABULOUS MAGAZINE

‘A generation-defining book on motherhood, ambition and sex. Like NORMAL PEOPLE with female friendship under the microscope.’ ERIN KELLY

‘Few novels leave me so genuinely breathless with their brilliance’ HANNAH BECKERMAN

‘Sublime’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Book of the Year

‘A marvellously tangy London novel‘ DAILY MAIL

‘A grown-up, honest take on female camaraderie. Packed with talking points’ MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘Hugely absorbing, massively enjoyable’ LISSA EVANS

‘Totally unputdownable, immersive, sharp, FAB’ HARRIET EVANS

‘Beautifully observed study of female friendship and a moving account of the collision between aspiration and reality’ DAILY MAIL MUST-READ

‘Fantastically well-realised portrait of female friendship’s joys and pains from an exciting new voice in British fiction’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

Hettie whose wounded brother won’t speak.

Evelyn who still grieves for her lost lover.

And Ada, who has never received an official letter about her son’s death, and is still waiting for him to come home.

As the mystery that binds them begins to unravel, far away, in the fields of France, the Unknown Soldier embarks on his journey home. The mood of the nation is turning towards the future – but can these three women ever let go of the past?
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Readers’ love WAKE by Anna Hope:

‘Beautifully, written, compelling, very moving’ 4 ****
‘Engrossing and illuminating’ 5 *****
‘ If you like a relationships novel with war backdrop, hard to find better’ 4 ****
‘An amazing achievment’ 5 *****