Lullaby Beach
On sale
4th February 2021
Price: £16.99
‘FAULTLESS STORYTELLING’ Observer
‘A PORTRAIT OF SISTERHOOD … POWERFUL, WISE, CELEBRATORY’ Daily Mail
A compelling novel about family secrets and the legacy of trauma, set against the changing fortunes of an English seaside town, from award-winning writer Stella Duffy.
When Lucy discovers the body of her great aunt Kitty, with a puzzling note and empty pill bottles by her bed, she can’t believe that the formidable woman who held her family together is gone – or understand why she has taken her own life.
Lucy is determined to decipher Kitty’s final message. What she finds will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family.
Lullaby Beach takes the reader on a journey through three generations of a complicated, close-knit family whose joys and misfortunes track many of the most pressing conflicts and concerns of post-war Britain, from the promise and hypocrisies of 1950s London to the political divides and risky freedoms of the present day.
‘Whether it’s down to the sure rhythm of Duffy’s faultless storytelling or the faded backdrop of the south coast of England, her latest novel is a comforting tale despite some gritty subject matter … Wise, generous and atmospheric’ OBSERVER
‘Duffy is a fearless writer … A portrait of sisterhood in the wider sense – one that’s as powerful and gritty as it is wise and celebratory’ DAILY MAIL
‘Lullaby Beach explores familial legacy, generational secrets and the effects of long-lasting trauma with a distinct tenderness’ NEW STATESMAN
‘A writer who never lets you down’ ALI SMITH
‘A PORTRAIT OF SISTERHOOD … POWERFUL, WISE, CELEBRATORY’ Daily Mail
A compelling novel about family secrets and the legacy of trauma, set against the changing fortunes of an English seaside town, from award-winning writer Stella Duffy.
When Lucy discovers the body of her great aunt Kitty, with a puzzling note and empty pill bottles by her bed, she can’t believe that the formidable woman who held her family together is gone – or understand why she has taken her own life.
Lucy is determined to decipher Kitty’s final message. What she finds will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family.
Lullaby Beach takes the reader on a journey through three generations of a complicated, close-knit family whose joys and misfortunes track many of the most pressing conflicts and concerns of post-war Britain, from the promise and hypocrisies of 1950s London to the political divides and risky freedoms of the present day.
‘Whether it’s down to the sure rhythm of Duffy’s faultless storytelling or the faded backdrop of the south coast of England, her latest novel is a comforting tale despite some gritty subject matter … Wise, generous and atmospheric’ OBSERVER
‘Duffy is a fearless writer … A portrait of sisterhood in the wider sense – one that’s as powerful and gritty as it is wise and celebratory’ DAILY MAIL
‘Lullaby Beach explores familial legacy, generational secrets and the effects of long-lasting trauma with a distinct tenderness’ NEW STATESMAN
‘A writer who never lets you down’ ALI SMITH
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Reviews
Duffy is a fearless writer ... A portrait of sisterhood in the wider sense - one that's as powerful and gritty as it is wise and celebratory
First class
A suicide in a sleepy English seaside town exposes family secrets that have lain dormant for three generations in this
atmospheric novel . . . The action is set in the present day and the 1950s. We meet Kitty as an idealistic young girl keen to escape the monotony of her small-minded seaside existence. She elopes with an unsuitable man and starts a new life in London. But it doesn't quite match up to her expectations and she comes running back home, licking her wounds. The narrative masterfully interweaves her story with that of other women in her family, leading to a dramatic finale
A powerful talent
Sharp insights and sharper wit
A writer who never lets you down
Lullaby Beach explores familial legacy, generational secrets and the effects of long-lasting trauma with a distinct tenderness
Whether it's down to the sure rhythm of Duffy's faultless storytelling or the faded backdrop of the south coast of England, her latest novel is a comforting tale despite some gritty subject matter. It opens as eighty-something Kitty takes her own life, leaving behind not just a gaping hole in the world of her two great-nieces, but a mystery, too. Four dates contained in a note seem to hold the key, concealing secrets that bind three generations of Beth and Sara's family. Wise, generous and atmospheric
A versatile and gifted novelist
Duffy writes with a judicious combination of power and subtlety
Nobody turns the screw of tension tighter than Stella Duffy