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You Came Back
You Came Back
Nov 14, 2025 5:42 PM

Author:Christopher Coake

You Came Back

You were loved and lost ... then you came back.

Thirty-something Mark Fife believes he has moved on from the accidental death of his young son Brendan and the subsequent break-up of his marriage. He's successful, in love again, and he thinks he's mastered his own memories at last. But when a strange woman tells him she believes her house is haunted by Brendan's ghost, his life is thrown into turmoil.

Mark doesn't believe in ghosts, but his distressed ex-wife does, and he really wants to help her. So much so that he begins to doubt his own beliefs - and endanger the relationships that really matter now in his life, with his fiancee Allison and his tough and sceptical father.

You Came Back is a wonderfully affecting read about the nature of belief and bereavement, about old loves and new loves, and the hardships involved in letting go.

Reviews

'This is one of Pratchett's best books. Hilarious and highly recommended'

—— The Times

'Pratchett is at the peak of his powers; it's hard to think of any humorist writing in Britain today who can match him...A masterful ear for dialogue, a keen eye for the ridiculous and a real feel for language'

—— Time Out

'The best humorous English author since P.G. Wodehouse'

—— Sunday Telegraph

Quinn blends his history, his political concerns, his ideals, his plot and his characters elegantly, with a light hand and the pace of a thriller.

—— Louisa Young , Daily Telegraph

Displays the unsentimental yet powerful flair for romance that characterized his previous novel, Half of the Human Race. Perhaps most exciting of all, there is a sense that he is still writing within himself.

—— Tom Cox , Sunday Times

Magnificent, bringing the Dickensian streets to grubby, teeming life.

—— Eithne Farry , Daily Mail

Anthony Quinn is a terrific storyteller. He has a thrilling knack for turning familiar periods of history into something surprising and often shocking, and for making the fortunes and misfortunes of his characters matter.

—— Juliet Nicholson , Evening Standard

Quinn brings the period in question vividly to life: his research is exemplary, and his subject absorbing.

—— Lucy Scholes , Observer

Anthony Quinn’s novels just get better... Parallels with contemporary London lurk just below the surface. This is not only an exciting thriller and a touching, stop-start love story but a seriously important book.

—— Sue Gaisford , Tablet

All the ingredients of an upmarket page-turner.

—— Max Davidson , Mail on Sunday

A story that brings alive an area of Camden that saw massive social change in a short space of time: the explosion of the railways and the shoe-horning of thousands of semi-starved people into slums provide a backdrop.

—— Dan Carrier , Camden New Journal

A devastating tale of subterfuge, poverty and privilege set in the cobbled streets of Victorian London.

—— Daily Record

Magnificent, bringing the Dickensian streets to grubby, teeming life

—— Eithne Farry , Daily Mail

Cements his reputation as an accomplished and challenging novelist… Though it takes place 130 years ago, the questions that The Streets poses about how, as a society and individuals, we tackle deprivation arguably remain just as pertinent

—— Peter Stanford , Independent

Quinn blends his history, his political concerns, his ideals, his plot and his characters elegantly, with a light hand and the pace of a thriller

—— Louisa Young , Daily Telegraph

Quinn’s most mature novel yet… His picture of poverty’s shaming, dehumanizing effect is powerful, and the recurrent call for pity heartfelt. Ms Eliot and Mr Dickens would surely approve

—— Holly Kyte , Sunday Telegraph

Anthony Quinn is a terrific storyteller. He has a thrilling knack for turning familiar periods of history into something surprising and often shocking, and for making the fortunes and misfortunes of his characters matter

—— Juliet Nicholson , Evening Standard

Displays the unsentimental yet powerful flair for romance that characterized his previous novel, Half of the Human Race. Perhaps most exciting of all, there is a sense that he is still writing within himself

—— Tom Cox , Sunday Times

Quinn brings the period in question vividly to life: his research is exemplary, and his subject absorbing

—— Lucy Scholes , Observer

All the ingredients of an upmarket page-turner

—— Max Davidson , Mail on Sunday

Ambitious, gripping and disturbingly well done

—— Kate Saunders , The Times

Beyond its splendid feel for the era’s chat and patter, the novel pits philanthropy and opportunism, ideals and selfishness, bracingly at odds

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

This novel is refreshingly different and contains a cornucopia of wonderful material and evocative descriptions

—— Good Book Guide

The best book I’ve read in ages… You have to read it.

—— Hilary Rose , The Times
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