Kerry Andrew

The beautifully observed human dynamics of Sarah Moss meets the emo-apocalypse of The Last of Us, a gripping, moving novel about siblings, sex and the end of the world.

Luke, Connor, Thea and Violet spend their first holiday together alone in their father's house in the south of France. The boys don't really know him, and they don't really know their half-sisters, either. Luke, the most easy going of the four, is keen to bring a new shape to their overlapping, unconventional family; Connor and Thea, born just six months apart but a world of difference between them, are struggling to hide their attraction to each other; Violet, the youngest, is trying to figure some things out about herself, and trying desperately to forget others. Sex in all its multiple forms is on the minds of the siblings during the hot, lethargic summer days spent next to the pool, but the land around them is starting to respond to something inexplicable and eerie. Animals begin to act strangely. There is a buzzing sound that only Connor can hear, and when Violet one night sees a plane light abruptly disappear in the sky, it signals the beginning of something that threatens so much more than their turbulent holiday. With considerable power and unfolding revelation, We Are Together Because starts as a sensual summer drama and very quickly becomes about our own survival, asking us what is truly important in life, and how far we've strayed from our place in a more fluid, vibrant, natural world.

'I didn't want this book to end... Tender, beautiful' DAISY JOHNSONLondon, 1985. Joe, father to eleven-year-old Matty, has disappeared, and nobody will explain where he's gone, or why. In the long, hot summer that follows, Matty's hunt for Joe leads to the ponds at Hampstead Heath. Beneath the water, there is a new kind of freedom. Above the water, a welcoming community of men offer refuge from an increasingly rocky home life. Fourteen years later, a new revelation sees Matty set off alone in a campervan, driving westwards through Ireland, swimming its wild loughs and following the scant clues left behind about Joe. The trip takes a dangerous turn, and Matty is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers. But safety comes at a price, and with desire and fear running high, the journey turns into an explosive, heart-rending reckoning with the past.*A 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK IN i NEWSPAPER*'Artfully paced, with queer undercurrents, this novel is tender and totally enveloping' Attitude

'A writer of frankly alarming talent' ROBERT MACFARLANELondon, 1985. Joe, father to eleven-year-old Matty, has disappeared, and nobody will explain where he's gone, or why. In the long, hot summer that follows, Matty's hunt for Joe leads to the ponds at Hampstead Heath. Beneath the water, there is a new kind of freedom. Above the water, a welcoming community of men offer refuge from an increasingly rocky home life. Fourteen years later, a new revelation sees Matty set off alone in a campervan, driving westwards through Ireland, swimming its wild loughs and following the scant clues left behind about Joe. The trip takes a dangerous turn, and Matty is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers. But safety comes at a price, and with desire and fear running high, the journey turns into an explosive, heart-rending reckoning with the past. Skin is inventive, compelling and deeply moving - a novel of loss and recovery, of wild swimming and identity from a rising star of British fiction.*A 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK IN i NEWSPAPER*

‘Swansong is the real thing, right from the start: spiky, strange and contemporary, but always with a dark undertow of myth and folklore tugging at its telling…this is a brilliant novel by a writer - and musician - of frankly alarming talent.’ Robert MacfarlaneIn this stunningly assured, immersive and vividly atmospheric first novel from the celebrated musician, a young woman comes face-to-face with the volatile, haunted wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. Polly Vaughan is trying to escape the ravaging guilt of a disturbing incident in London by heading north to the Scottish Highlands. As soon as she arrives, this spirited, funny, alert young woman goes looking for drink, drugs and sex – finding them all quickly, and unsatisfactorily, with the barman in the only pub. She also finds a fresh kind of fear, alone in this eerie, myth-drenched landscape. Increasingly prone to visions or visitations – floating white shapes in the waters of the loch or in the woods – she is terrified and fascinated by a man she came across in the forest on her first evening, apparently tearing apart a bird. Who is this strange loner? And what is his sinister secret? Kerry Andrew is a fresh new voice in British fiction; one that comes from a deep understanding of the folk songs, mythologies and oral traditions of these islands. Her powerful metaphoric language gives Swansong a charged, hallucinatory quality that is unique, uncanny and deeply disquieting.

Featuring the winning story by Ingrid Persaud, alongside the other four shortlisted stories. Hung-over and grief-stricken, a man contemplated suicide at the edge of a cliff, until he is unexpectedly distracted by the sight of a woman emerging from the water below... A group of art students protesting the demolition of a housing block decide to turn its destruction into a creative act... Waiting in her car for the rain to pass after her mother's funeral, a woman nurses her child and reflects on a world outside that remains headless of her sorrow... The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2018 pivot around the theme of loss, and the different ways that individuals, and communities, respond to it. From the son caring for his estranged father, to the widow going out for her first meal alone, the characters in these stories are trying to find ways to repair themselves, looking ahead to a time when grief will eventually soften and sooth. Above all, these stories explore the importance of human connection, and salutary effect of companionship and friendship when all else seems lost.