Starting Out: From the 2025 Booker shortlisted author of The Rest of Our Lives

Meet Lisa.

Smart, bookish, an only child.

Having navigated school and adolescence - mainly under the influence of the Brontës and Jane Austen - she goes to college and meets Eric, a fellow student, whose ambition pushes him towards a summer work placement in NY and then a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. But it's Lisa who helps him, who may have to follow him if she wants their relationship to have a chance, and who could be compromising her own ambitions and friendships in the process.

From the author of The Rest of Our Lives, Starting Out is a compelling character study which anatomises a relationship from its outset, exploring the always complex questions of happiness, sensibility and agency.