Sweet Fruit, Sour Land

Rebecca Ley author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Sandstone Press Ltd

Published:19th Jul '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Sweet Fruit, Sour Land cover

Full UK marketing campaign by the Sandstone Press in-house team. Shortlisted for The Betty Trask Prize 2019.

When a wealthy client visits Mathilde’s dressmaking shop, she finds herself drawn into the only surviving circle of luxury left in a barren London. Attending parties offers a welcome escape from life governed by ration cards and a strictly enforced child policy.

When a wealthy client visits Mathilde’s dressmaking shop, she finds herself drawn into the only surviving circle of luxury left in a barren London. Attending parties offers a welcome escape from life governed by ration cards and a strictly enforced child policy. Here she meets enigmatic government minister, George, and piano-playing Jaminder, with whom an intense friendship blossoms. As their relationship grows stronger, George’s grip on Mathilde tightens, as she tries to discover where the illicit food is coming from, where women disappear to, and what price she must pay to avoid bringing a child into a cruel, ever-changing world.

‘Set in a chillingly plausible post-apocalyptic Britain, Sweet Fruit, Sour Land is about what it means to be human when civilization has been destroyed. Utterly absorbing and with prose to savour, this is a novel that will stay with me.’

* Hannah Kohler, author of The Outside Lands *

‘A sharp critique of a hierarchical society... peppered with unusual, thought-provoking and at times poetic insight into memory, sense, questioning the status quo, including what feminist resistance looks like.’

* Laura Waddell, Nasty Women and Know Your Place contributor *

‘I loved this tale of London in the future and I actually can’t stop thinking about it now I’ve finished... 5 stars.’

* What Rebecca's Read blog *

‘This sharp exploration of a dystopian London that doesn't feel so far from our own is full of female friendship, feminism and delicious description.’

* Top 20 beach reads, M

  • Winner of The Guardian Not the Booker 2018
  • Short-listed for The Kitschies Golden Tentacle (debut novel) 2018
  • Short-listed for The Betty Trask Prize 2019

ISBN: 9781912240333

Dimensions: 195mm x 130mm x 20mm

Weight: 288g

320 pages