A masterful contribution to the canon of queer women's literature. A smart and uncomfortable dissection of longing.

SHON FAYE

'Sophie out-jars The Bell Jar with this dark and gleaming masterpiece.'

EILEEN MYLES

'Unflinching, unexpected, radical, lyrical, and wholly original.'

SOPHIE MACKINTOSH

Everything falls into place: she will get sober, she will eat well, she will start sleeping properly, she will work hard, she will resurrect her career, she will make The Lakes, she will charm Mitch, she will be somebody. Pearl is a thirty-something filmmaker balanced precariously on the edge of an addiction-fuelled breakdown. But when she is invited to interview her idol and crush, lesbian cult filmmaker Mitch Meyer, her stilted life restarts.

Buoyed and seduced by Mitch's interest in her and her work, Pearl swaps alcoholism for romantic obsession, and London for a summer in New York with Mitch. All the while she is haunted by a project she has been toying with for years: a film about Veronica Lake, a 1940s film star who drank herself into obscurity.

'I loved this lyrical fever dream of a novel. Melancholic, hopeful, seedy, dazzling, tender, brutal. Just gorgeous.'

EMMA VAN STRAATEN

'Best novelistic treatment of addiction I've read in years.'

KIERAN GODDARD

'Robinson's prose is as addictive as Pearl's wanting. A fearless look into the dark.'

LAUREN MCQUISTIN

'This lush and detailed dive into the flayed-open femme heart is irresistible - wild, cringey, addictive, relatable.'

MICHELLE TEA