All the Little Bird-Hearts

*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023*
Written from the perspective of an autistic mother, All the Little Bird-Hearts is a poetic debut which masterfully intertwines themes of familial love, friendship, class, prejudice and trauma with psychological acuity and wit The Booker Prize Judges 2023

Glorious. Unforgettable Melissa Harrison
Funny, lyrical, deft and devastating Amy Sackville
A distinct and poetic new voice Clare Pollard

Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly – her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.

Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sundays book. Soon they are in and out of each others homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollos polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.