Ghosts

Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he's going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold.

Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone's moving to the suburbs. There's no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who's caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

Dolly Alderton's debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now.

'The perfect no-holds-barred modern day rom-com' Stylist'I loved it - Dolly Alderton has clearly mastered every form of writing. Which is a surprise to nobody' Candice Carty-Williams

'Wise, funny, tender and true, sharply-observed and utterly hilarious. Dolly Alderton's talent is phenomenal' Elizabeth Day