At the Table

A smart, readable and sharply contemporary debut, full of awkward family lunches and drunken weddings, darting between Camberwell flats, Soho bars and late-night Ubers * The Times and Sunday Times Best Books of 2022 *
What sets At the Table apart is Powell's acute understanding not just of how we interact in the modern world...but the eternals of the human comedy: how people fool themselves, make excuses, get it wrong and keep trying anyway -- John Self * The Times *
Powell is a fantastic writer who exercises perfect control. Every detail is forensically, sympathetically observed, and while there's a lot that's tragic, it's often very close to comedy -- Wendy Holden * Daily Mail *
The story's centre is Nicole - a spiky and charismatic woman struggling to get her life in order . . . Like Waller-Bridge's Fleabag and Rooney's Marianne, Nicole is her own woman: a complex and satisfying presence.At the Table is rich with delights -- Erica Wagner * Harper's Bazaar *
Filled with razor-sharp dialogue and psychological acuity, At the Table is an astute debut novel about dysfunctional family life -- Hannah Beckerman * Observer *
I have rarely seen the relationship between parents and their grown-up children so deftly exposed. I sat, at the end of it, startled, close to tears. It made me want to call my mother immediately -- Sophie Heawood
Claire Powell's great skill is to reveal to the reader what her characters struggle to realize themselves . . . Its themes are unremarkable - love, self-knowledge, the feeling everyone else is living while you are standing still . . . yet almost everything in it feels true -- Claire Allfree * Metro *
At The Table is an assured, exquisitely drawn novel that fans of Sorrow And Bliss will adore -- Sarra Manning * Red magazine (online) *
Well-written, witty family drama * Good Housekeeping *
A beautifully-written novel about what keeps a family together and what tears it apart -- Lissa Evans
At the Table is a hugely intelligent, emotionally astute novel about family dynamics, and Claire Powell is an incredible new talent -- Marian Keyes
Painfully funny, acutely well-observed, powerfully resonant in its humanity and emotional accuracy. I missed this book whenever I wasn't reading it -- Luke Kennard
A lovely novel. I adored the precision with which these people are seen, and the exactness of the social setting. I found myself absorbed in them, caring about them, wanting them to do the right thing, and I was very sorry to leave them. It's a novel Elizabeth Taylor wouldn't wouldn't have minded writing, and there aren't enough of those around -- Philip Hensher
I loved this novel about a family. Each chapter has a meal (or drink, lots of drinks) and Claire Powell's writing and characters are funny and heartbreaking and moreish. I'm jealous of anyone who hasn't read it yet -- Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy
Brilliantly clever and funny and sad -- India Knight