'I've read no better novel in years' Samantha Harvey
'A transporting piece of 1970s gothic with a viscous sensory pull' The Times
'Evocative, resonant, and quite simply, brilliant' Claire Fuller
'Like the building of a thunderstorm through a sultry day … the novel's engines thrum from the first page' Sarah Moss, Guardian
'Disturbing and heartbreaking in equal measure' Hari Kunzru
A powerfully evocative and tenderly realised debut novel about family secrets, the power of imagination - and coming of age in the dying dreams of the 1970s
Here in Aunt Perry's house, Frank and his little sister Odette must make sense of their cousins' hostility – while their mum seems to drift further and further away. The house is haunted by secrets, past and present; and as spring turns to a suffocatingly hot summer, the past threatens to boil over and scald everything in its wake.
Trouble Was is a raw and tender story of growing up too soon, betrayal and resilience, love and survival – and a dazzling exploration of toxic family politics, buried secrets and the power of the imagination.