About the book

Published: 19 May 2020
ISBN: 9781786332356
Imprint: Hutchinson
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 336
RRP: $32.99

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When the Lights Go Out

Carys Bray

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The new novel from Carys Bray, author of Costa-shortlisted A Song for Issy Bradley.

If you believe your world is going to end, how should you live?
And what if, while preparing for disaster, you unwittingly precipitate it?

While Emma Abram prepares for Christmas, her husband Chris frets about starvation and societal collapse. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Chris has turned off the heating. He treks his sons across the Moss in the drubbing rain. And he has other plans that, if voiced, Emma would surely veto. But it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

Emma longs to lower a rope and winch Chris from the pit of his worries. But he doesn't want to be rescued or even reassured - he wants to pull her in after him.

Pub date: 19 May 2020
ISBN: 9781786332356
Imprint: Hutchinson
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 336
RRP: $32.99

Categories:

Share…

About the Author

Carys Bray

Carys Bray was awarded the Scott Prize for her debut short-story collection, Sweet Home. Her first novel, A Song for Issy Bradley, was chosen for Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and winner of the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2015. She lives in Southport with her husband and four children.

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Praise for When the Lights Go Out

“When the Lights Go Out is absolutely superb. So timely, and so deeply human, a novel which takes us right into the heart of a marriage and at the same time grapples with the most crucial issue of our age. It's bursting with compassion and wisdom - I felt for these characters every step of the way.”

Shelley Harris, author of JUBILEE

“Carys Bray is extraordinarily skilled at creating characters who feel like they might live down the road from you. Through exquisite use of language and observation, she examines the intricacies of family life in ways which have you laughing one moment and biting your nails with worry the next.”

Sarah Franklin, author of SHELTER

“A sharply observed, deftly told tale of rupture and repair. In it, with characteristic wit and humanity, Bray shows us the necessity and the impossibility of preparing for disaster, and reminds us of both the fragility and capacity of love.”

Jenn Ashworth, author of A Kind of Intimacy and Fell