Vacuum in the Dark

Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, 2019

From the Whiting Award-winning author of Pretend I'm Dead comes a new hilarious, edgy, and brilliant one-of-a kind novel, for fans of Sally Rooney and Joshua Ferris

Mona is twenty-six, working as a cleaner and looking for a fresh start in Taos, New Mexico. She moved there mostly to escape from a bad break-up with a junkie named Mr. Disgusting (don't ask). But her fresh start hasn't gone as smoothly as she expected, not least because she's found herself another bad boyfriend. This one she calls Dark, and it's complicated: he happens to be married to one of Mona's clients.

But Mona soon realises that neither her relationships nor her past traumas can be easily left behind. In an attempt to get over her heartbreak she winds up on an eccentric, moving, hilarious journey that takes her back to her own beginnings.

A constantly surprising, laugh-out-loud funny novel about an utterly original, quirky and unforgettable heroine, Vacuum in the Dark is an astonishing read from one of the freshest voices in fiction today.

• Dimensions (cm): 19.5 x 12.8  x 1.8