âThe best thing you'll read this yearâ KILEY REID
âSo beautifulâ SARAH JESSICA PARKER
âOne of those books I will read again and againâ JOJO MOYES
âVery funny, very touchingâ DAVID NICHOLLS
âMoving, absorbing, evocativeâ SARA COLLINS
âWonderful ... Compelling ... Very funnyâ MARINA HYDE
âI devoured itâ¦. Exquisitely written, poignant and funnyâ FEARNE COTTON
âThis book will be your friendâ MIRANDA HART
A crackling, comical, tender, and highly original novel about mental health, the certainties of medicine, buried trauma, love, death and time lost in the crushing â" and comical â" hopes of modern life
_______________________________________________________
Vita Woods is on the brink. She has a good job and a successful doctor boyfriend, Max, with whom the sex is great and the chat sufficient; a vivacious and charming sister Gracie, her verbal sparring partner and best friend for life; and sheâs even got a goldfish called Whitney Houston, who brightens her days by showing her she's not the only one going round in circles.
Because itâs the days that are Vitaâs problem. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, Vita rarely exits the basement apartment where she lives, since Vita is in âThe Pitâ â" a place of deep exhaustion and semi-consciousness where she spends much of her time, dead to the world and to herself. She has been sick for months, with an illness that no doctor, not even Max, can medically diagnose.
One day an unexpected courier delivery forces Vita upstairs, into the light - and into a chance encounter with her neighbours upstairs. Suddenly, Vita finds herself faced with an even trickier dilemma. She likes her new friends; sheâll even sneak upstairs to see them while Max is out, against all medical advice but something about her âconditionâ is nagging at the borders of her mind. After all, what is a house-bound girl to do when she canât keep the light, her new friendships, or - worst of all - her memories out? The problem might be Vita herself but as far as anyone can prove... thereâs nothing wrong with her.
âEncompasses so many things: a whole life - sorrows, damage, hopes' RICHARD CURTIS
'Surreal, magical, totally original' SATHNAM SANGHERA
'Deep and dark and beautiful' ESTHER FREUD
PRAISE FOR KATE WEINBERG AND THE TRUANTS
'One of the standout books of the summer' Stylist
'Magical in every way . . . One of the best novels I've ever read' Fearne Cotton
'As much a coming-of-age tale as a murder mystery . . . An impressive debut' The Times