Author:Ailsa McFarlane,Maria T Creasey

Brought to you by Penguin.
Featured in the Observer 10 BEST DEBUTS OF 2021.
A hypnotic story of young love on the run.
Anne Marie is adrift San Padua, living a precarious life of shift-work and shared apartments. Her husband Cal left her on their first anniversary and two years later, she can't move on.
When he shows up suddenly on her doorstep, clearly in some kind of trouble, she reluctantly agrees to a drink. But later that night a gun goes off in an alley near the shore and the young couple flee together, crammed into a beat up car with their broken past. Their ill-at-ease odyssey takes them across a shimmering American landscape and through the darker seams of the country, towards a city that may or may not represent salvation.
Highway Blue is a story of being lost and found; of love, in all its forms; and of how the pursuit of love is, in its turn, a kind of redemption.
In front of me the long length of the road wound out, wound out and wound on under hot sky. And I drove...
'I loved Highway Blue - a dark, glimmering, journey deep into modern America on a knife edge between love and dependence.' Rosie Price, author of What Red Was
'Hypnotic, stylish, cinematic: Highway Blue holds you captive like a blues song or incantation.' Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road
© Ailsa McFarlane 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Poignant, moving, and cinematic, this is a story imbued with love and loss that feels at once distantly dreamlike and vividly recognisable.
—— An Yu, author of BRAISED PORKHighway Blue is a beautiful, inspired rendering of the on-the-road journey. At its core is an unforgettable protagonist in Anne Marie. McFarlane has written an irresistible story of love and life's meanderings. A very gifted writer, I was entranced.
—— Elaine Feeney, author of AS YOU WEREAilsa McFarlane's prose combines the razor sharp truth telling of Ottessa Moshfegh with the troubled heart of Raymond Carver, using plain language to conjure a shockingly intense way of seeing. I've never read anything quite like it.
—— Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of THE THIRD RAINBOW GIRLI loved Highway Blue - a dark, glimmering, journey deep into modern America on a knife edge between love and dependence.
—— Rosie Price, author of WHAT RED WASHypnotic, stylish, cinematic: Highway Blue holds you captive like a blues song or incantation.
—— Olivia Sudjic, author of ASYLUM ROADIn Highway Blue, the richness and pathos of the ordinary is heightened by the private mysteries of McFarlane's innocent fugitives as they run from both the law and themselves. It is a harrowing journey, but one filled with unexpected kindnesses and the illuminating effect of transformation. I so admire it.
If one of America's many complicated attributes is its ability to let whole lives pass without being seen, Ailsa McFarlane reminds us that language can bring these same lives into stark and penetrating relief. Highway Blue is a road novel, a love story, a coming of age, but with sentences so sharply wrought, characters so achingly precise, that it feels new and fresh and utterly alive.
McFarlane deftly pulls the strings of her cinematic plot, making sure it never descends into melodrama. Instead, the story remains gripping, yet thought-provoking - a poignant comment on the modern condition.
—— StylistHighway Blue is a beautiful, sun-drenched road novel... A novel that's in love with the idea of America, both contemporary in its concerns and deeply nostalgic
—— ObserverA furious utopia. Utterly compelling, brilliant and terrifying. Sorrowland seizes the history of white supremacy, racist medical experimentation, and the dream - and danger - of the commune and gnashes it into something magnificent and truly reparative. An epic fantasy that interweaves righteous, large-scale confrontations with power, extremely sexy and moving erotic gothic horror, and exquisite, meticulous renderings of the daily life of parenting. This is a fairy tale for adults, spangled in the wreckage of the world. A gorgeous, singular, and profound work.
—— Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the FoxThe writing is visceral and soul-clenching. The characters - bold, creative, and memorable. The action, heart-stopping. This is imaginative storytelling at its finest. Once I started, I could not put down Sorrowland until I reached the end. And then I wanted more!
—— Djèlí Clark, author of Ring ShoutSorrowland is a raw, powerful, and visceral read. Nature, joy, science, belonging, human metamorphosis, generational oppression, strength, and sheer lust for life: if Toni Morrison, M. Night Shyamalan, and Marge Piercy got together they might, if they were lucky, produce something with the unstoppable exhilaration of this novel. Sorrowland is sui generis.
—— Nicola Griffith, author of HildSorrowland by Rivers Solomon contains so much wisdom and insight, wrapped in an abundance of passion and fury and tenderness. There is so much going on in this book: the spectre of what happens when rebellion is co-opted, our longstanding practice of using Black bodies for cruel and unethical experiments, the audacity of queer love. The arc of this book takes Vern and her babies away from civilization and then back to it - but they return changed, and they change everyone else, and this book restored my faith in our potential to transform just when I needed it most.
—— Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the SkyLee Child on An Unkindness of Ghosts: Immediately immersive and sophisticated. This is a phenomenal piece of work.
—— Lee ChildOn An Unkindness of Ghosts: Solomon debuts with a raw distillation of slavery, feudalism, prison, and religion that kicks like rotgut moonshine...Stunning.
—— Publishers WeeklyInfused with the spirit of Octavia Butler and loaded with meaning for the present day, An Unkindness of Ghosts will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Solomon's impassioned, speculative, literary book is sorely needed on library shelves.
—— BooklistOn An Unkindness of Ghosts: What Solomon achieves with this debut - the sharpness, the depth, the precision - puts me in mind of a syringe full of stars. I want to say about this book, its only imperfection is that it ended.
—— NPRDark and magical, Sorrowland is a fantastical tale that grapples with America's history of racism and marginalised communities
—— I PaperSolomon captures Vern's journey in a gripping narrative that is equal parts speculative fiction and Gothic tale, all while unravelling a fictional world that is not dissimilar to our own, particularly in its depiction of racism and white supremacy.
—— TIME MAGAZINE (Europe)Solomon's most powerful work yet.
—— The New York TimesSORROWLAND is a highly atmospheric, addictive read.
—— The White Review[A]bsurdly well-researched, prescient and pin-sharp [...] so definitely pick it up'
—— Sirin Kale[I]t's thrillingly, DELICIOUSLY fascinating about How We Live Now. She's a MINE of information- philosophy, science, literature, stats, all pulled together in her coolly elegant prose. I could not put it down!
—— Marian KeyesThese 242 pages are an (exhaustive, though not depressing) middle-finger to the word 'should'. A word which justifies women feeling the need to constantly scrutinise every decision; in the name of self-improvement, in order to have the Best Life Possible, at a hundred miles an hour.
—— Buro247Energetic and compelling.
—— Olivia SudjicSykes stays true to "High Low" form by using a high-low mix of vocabulary ... We have all had moments of asking ourselves if we are doing "this" - gestures vaguely - right, which makes the book all the more likeable. This is a form of learning how to succeed by failing - as it admits to being human.
Pandora is my personal guru on all things relating to the zeitgeist. How lucky you are that she can now be yours too.
—— Dolly AldertonThis will spark a thousand conversations and encourage us to find our own path to contentment.
—— Best nonfiction books of 2020 , TopshopHailed as a manifesto for modern women ... packed with her trademark wit, wisdom and philosophical references (if you know her, you know), this book is the opposite of doom and gloom. Instead, her judgement free observations are reassuring, comforting and wholeheartedly uplifting.
—— Marie ClaireA moving and captivating tale of survival and hope in a war-torn country, and confirms Mohamed's stature as one of Britain's best young novelists
—— Stylist on The Orchard of Lost SoulsA heartfelt story, handled so carefully and empathetically
—— Aisling BeaBecause Of You is a tale told with warmth by a storyteller who never takes herself too seriously
—— Sunday ExpressHeartbreaking but redemptive, and lightened by French's trademark humour, this is a compelling read that will keep you poised between laughter and tears
—— Daily MailA tantalising story of motherhood told with Dawn French's signature warmth
—— Sainsbury's MagazineAs ever, even in the darkest of times, Dawn has found humour to inject into her novel
—— BestA brilliant book
—— Good HousekeepingThe life-affirming and unmissable new novel
—— Eastern Daily PressA tale told with warmth
—— Daily RecordWhile Dawn French's latest novel contains a dash of humour, it's also heart-wrenching
—— The Hunsbury HandbookA fabulous emotional tearjerker of a novel
—— SilversurfersPraise for Dawn French
—— -Hilarious and brilliant
—— Woman & HomeI adored According to YES. It's so different to anything I've read in forever, so charming, wise, brilliantly written. I loved it all
—— Marian KeyesWitty and wise, it'll have you burning the midnight oil. A cracker
—— Woman's WeeklyVery funny and packs an emotional clout. Brilliant!
—— HeatAn enlightening and feel-good read offering a fresh look at life and how to embrace it. Funny and enjoyable to the end
—— We Love This BookThere is lots of fun to be had reading this book. It's impossible not to warm to Rosie, a funny and open-hearted woman who acts as a salve and comfort blanket for this unhappy, inhibited family. There's something quite joyous about the way she unashamedly romps her way through the novel, changing the lives of those around her for the better
—— ExpressAnother hilarious novel!
—— BellaFrench can spin a yarn . . . which sets According to YES apart. Think the vicar of Dibley, without the dog collar. YES YES YES indeed
—— IndependentWise and poignant
—— Beyond the JokeHeart-warming
—— Choice Magazine