**Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize'Wildly seductive' –** Sarah Waters'Exquisite' – New York Times'Deeply enjoyable' – Daily TelegraphBriefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens is a historical otherworldly story about breaking convention, and about love – secret, forbidden, unrequited.Blanca has been dead for a few centuries when she falls in love – instantly and devotedly...

**A Washington Post “Notable Work of Fiction” of the Year“A captivatingly strange masterpiece.” —Miranda Seymour, Financial TimesIn a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.**Brought to her uncle’s decaying Oxfordshire estate when she was a child, Grace has grown up on the periphery of a once-great household, an outsider in her own home. Now a self-...

When she was twenty-seven, Nell Stevens—a lifelong aspiring novelist—won an all-expenses-paid fellowship to go anywhere in the world to write. Would she choose a glittering metropolis, a romantic village, an exotic paradise? Not exactly. Nell picked Bleaker Island, a snowy, windswept pile of rock in the Falklands. Other than sheep, penguins, paranoia, and the weather, there aren’t many distractions, but as Nell soon discovers, total isolation and 1,085 calories a day are far from ideal con...

'Perfect' Lena Dunham 'This year's literary sensation' Evening StandardHow far would you travel to become a writer?8000 miles from home1085 calories a day3 months to write the novel that would make her nameAt least that was the plan. But when Nell Stevens travelled to Bleaker Island in the Falklands (official population: two) she didn’t count on the isolation getting to her . . .

Cuando estaba viva, viví en una época de hombres apuestos. Después de morir, me encontré en una época de mujeres bellas.Blanca se enamora de George Sand nada más verla por primera vez, mientras esta besa a Frédéric Chopin en el jardín de un monasterio abandonado de Mallorca. Es el invierno de 1838, y Blanca ha estado vagando por el pueblo de Valldemossa desde su prematura muerte hace cientos de años; y, durante todo ese tiempo, no ha conocido a nadie como George, e...

In this tale of two writers, Nell Stevens interweaves her own life as a twenty-something graduate student with that of the English author, Elizabeth Gaskell. Although they are separated by more than 150 years, Nell finds herself drawn to the Victorian novelist by their shared experiences of unrequited love—Gaskell for an American critic she met in Rome, Nell for a soulful American screenwriter living in Paris. As Nell’s romance founders and her passion for academia fails to materialize, sh...

Winner of the 2019 Somerset Maugham Award'A great galloping joy of a book - funny, lyrical, fast paced, heart-warming – a delicious celebration of love and life' – Rebecca Stott, author of In the Days of RainIn 1857, Elizabeth Gaskell set sail for Rome, a city that would prove to be a place of inspiration and love: she would make enduring friendships, and meet a man – Charles Norton – who would become the love of her life.I...

Winner of the 2019 Somerset Maugham Award'A great galloping joy of a book - funny, lyrical, fast paced, heart-warming - a delicious celebration of love and life' Rebecca Stott, author of In the Days of RainIn 1857, after two years of writing The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell fled England for Rome on the eve of publication. The project had become so fraught with criticism, with different truths and different l...

In a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.Brought to her uncle’s decaying Oxfordshire estate when she was a child, Grace has grown up on the periphery of a once-great household, an outsider in her own home. Now a self-possessed and secretive young woman, she has developed unusual predilections: for painting, particularly forgery; for deception; for other girls.

'My favourite debut of 2017 . . . as funny as it is poignant' Lena DunhamWhen Nell Stevens was given the opportunity to spend three months in a location of her choice in order to write her novel, she was determined to rid herself of all distractions. So Nell decided to travel to Bleaker Island (official population: two) in the Falklands where she would write 2,500 words a day.But Bleaker House is not that novel. Instead this is a book about a young...

In this tale of two writers, Nell Stevens interweaves her own life as a twenty-something graduate student with that of the English author, Elizabeth Gaskell. Although they are separated by more than 150 years, Nell finds herself drawn to the Victorian novelist by their shared experiences of unrequited love—Gaskell for an American critic she met in Rome, Nell for a soulful American screenwriter living in Paris. As Nell’s romance founders and her passion for academia fails to materialize, sh...

Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize 2026A Finalist in the Nota Bene Prize 2026‘Casually magisterial’ Guardian'Endlessly intriguing' Observer‘A marvel of a novel’ Ali Smith‘Jane Eyre by way of Patricia Highsmith’ BBC Radio 4‘Puts Stevens in the class of Sarah Waters’