Eight Novels Featuring Artists: A Book List

June 8, 2026June 8, 2026 / Claire Fuller / Leave a comment

A stack of books with the top book titled 'Hunger & Thirst' by Claire Fuller, placed in front of a wooden bookshelf filled with various other books.

A stack of books on a wooden table, with the book 'Hunger & Thirst' by Claire Fuller prominently displayed on top, surrounded by various other books and a background of bookshelves.

Hunger and Thirst is the first of my six novels to feature an artist, which surprises me, since I was one myself for many years.

Ursula is a reclusive and famous sculptor in her fifties, whose first job at sixteen is working in the post room of the art school where I studied sculpture. There’s a lot about art and wood carving in this novel, and these sections were wonderful to write – almost like making the pieces without (much of) the effort! In the book, Ursula examines and is critical about a sculpture of some ribs and intestines, which was in fact the first carving I ever did.

I thought it would be fun to look at some other novels that feature art and artists, including Take What You Need by Idra Novey that made my books of the year in 2025, The Italian Teacher that was a favourite in 2024, and Burntcoat by Sarah Hall in 2022. So maybe I do have a love for art in fiction.

Click on any of these books to be taken to Bookshop.org in the UK to buy them (and to the US for the American edition of Hunger and Thirst, above.)

And don’t forget to let me know which I’ve missed!

Happy reading!

A book titled 'Take What You Need' by Idra Novey displayed on a wooden shelf, surrounded by other books in the background. The book cover features a gas station image with promotional quotes.

Book cover of 'The Italian Teacher' by Tom Rachman, featuring colorful abstract artwork and quotes from reviewers. Placed on a wooden shelf with other books in the background.

My book tour has slowed somewhat, but you can still come and see me in few places over the summer and into the autumn. I’ll next be at Book Haus in Bristol on 17th June, talking about Hunger and Thirst, and my son, Henry Ayling will be playing some live music. Hope to see you somewhere on my travels!

Hunger and Thirst is published in the US and Canada Today

June 2, 2026June 2, 2026 / Claire Fuller / Leave a comment

I’m delighted that today, my sixth novel Hunger and Thirst is published by Tin House / Zando in the US, and by Bond Street Books / Double Day in Canada.

Aren’t these covers amazing?

It’s Belletrist’s book club pick for June (I’ll be doing an Instagram Live with them on 6 June), and on Thursday 4 June I’ll be live on a Canadian TV breakfast show (remotely!). There are lots of podcast interviews about to pop up, but you can already listen to me chatting to Horror in the Margins. Also on Thursday 4 June, I have a US online launch event at 6pm EDT, which is free to attend, you just need to sign up here.

I hope you enjoy the book if you pick it up, and if you see it in any Canadian or US bookstores, take a picture and let me know.

Happy reading!

Buy in the US

Buy in Canada

Buy in the UK

What it’s about

1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job delivering mail at a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and—delightfully— some new friends, including wild-child, Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at the Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can’t resist this hodgepodge family. But as Sue’s behavior and demands become more extreme, Ursula who has always been hungry—for food—and more importantly for love, acceptance and belonging carries out her friend’s terrible dare. And, for this, Ursula finds herself haunted—literally haunted.

Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned, reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when her identity is exposed by true-crime documentary-maker, Emma Zahini who is digging into an unsolved disappearance. But it is not only the filmmaker who has discovered Ursula’s whereabouts, and as her past catches up with her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without.

From critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Claire Fuller, Hunger and Thirst is a compelling and chilling tale of loneliness and female friendship, of the dangerous line between wanting and needing, and of how far a person will go to truly belong.

Hunger and Thirst published in the UK today

May 7, 2026May 6, 2026 / Claire Fuller / 3 Comments

Hunger and Thirst, my sixth novel, is published in the UK today by Fig Tree / Penguin. Of all my novels it’s the one that has the most of me in it. It’s set in the town where I went to art school, and stayed; Ursula, the main character works in the post room of the same art school; and she lives in the squat I lived in in 1989. But there the similarities end.

I’d love it if you bought it or borrowed it from a library and read it. If you like it, let me know what you think. Take a picture and put it on social media, or take a picture of it on the tables or shelves in any bookshops you happen to step into. I’d love to see. If you’re on Instagram, you can tag me: @writerclairefuller

Ursula, a famous and reclusive sculptor is being hounded by a true crime documentary maker. She wants to interview Ursula about the events that happened at The Underwood in 1987 when Ursula was sixteen. In the summer of that year she meets a colleague, Sue, who becomes her friend, and who dares her to do various things. ‘Your turn next,’ Sue says. Eventually Sue dares Ursula to kill someone and when Ursula actually does, she is haunted for the rest of her life.

If that sounds like your sort of thing, you can buy it from your lovely local independent book shop, who are very likely to have some signed copies (I signed several hundred for independents). Or you can buy it from Bookshop.org which supports independents. Or you can buy it from Waterstones.

I’d also love to see you at one of my forthcoming events. In person or online. More details here.

Happy reading!

Listen to Hunger and Thirst on BBC Radio 4 this May!

May 1, 2026April 30, 2026 / Claire Fuller / 2 Comments

Screenshot of the BBC Radio 4 page featuring 'Hunger and Thirst' by Claire Fuller. Includes details about Episode 1, airing on May 11, 2026, at 22:45, along with information about the author and production credits.

I’m absolutely delighted to let you know that Hunger and Thirst has been selected for the BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime slot. It will be broadcast on Radio 4 starting on 11th May at 22.45. It has been abridged into ten 14 minute parts and I’m curious to know what Sian Preece has kept in and what has been discarded.

It is read by actor, Juliet Aubrey, and produced by Eilidh McCreadie. I hope you manage to have a listen, but do keep in mind that apparently Book at Bedtime books lose 80%! So if you’d like to buy the full version, have a look here.

Happy reading. Sleep well!

Eleven Novels where the House is a Character too

April 10, 2026April 10, 2026 / Claire Fuller / 16 Comments

Do you love books where the house is almost as important as the human characters? Me too.

I’ve just finished Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans and I loved the mismatched, ugly Dimperley Manor full of taxidermied animals. (I’ll be speaking to Lissa about it at Winchester Books Festival on 19th April 2026 – join us!)

And it got me thinking about other novels where the houses are full of presence, including, ahem, one of mine.

There are a few stately homes amongst this lot but not all of them are grand. You’ll also find houses full of sand, houses and land passed down through time, and one I almost forgot, the graphic novel, The Wreck by Lizzy Stewart which was published this week. (Thanks to my Librarian Husband for the finger.)

Tell me what I’ve missed! There are already others that I’ve been thinking of as I type, including North Woods, and Brideshead Revisited. But let me know which other novels you love where the house is (almost) centre stage.

Click on the pictures to be taken to Bookshop.org (UK) where you can buy most of them.

A close-up of the book 'Albion' by Anna Hope, featuring a colorful cover with the title prominently displayed. The book is placed on top of other stacked books in a cozy bookshelf setting.

Book cover of 'Rosemary's Baby' by Ira Levin, featuring a red background with a white baby carriage illustration, placed on a stack of other books in a cozy library setting.

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I’ll be shortly going on a UK tour for my next novel, Hunger and Thirst. I’d love it if you could join me on one of my visits, or online – including a US online event. More details here.

Join Claire Fuller on her UK Book Tour for Hunger and Thirst

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 / Claire Fuller / Leave a comment

I’m going on a UK book tour for Hunger and Thirst!

I’ll be travelling from North to South and East to West. And I hope that you can join me at one of my stops. If none of them are near you, then you might be able to join me on one of my two online events.

The tour kicks off with a launch in Winchester on 8th May. This two-hour event includes a glass of wine and a piece of cake, and the chance to win some bookish goodies. I’ll be interviewed by author and journalist, Rebecca Fletcher followed by a Q&A and book signing. If you’re local, please do join me.

From then I’ll be in Oxford, London, Romsey, Edinburgh, Malton, Whitley Bay, Hay Festival, Leighton Buzzard, and Clare in Suffolk.

I’ll be doing two events that include music from Henry Ayling who has written some creepy piano music as featured in the book. My events with him are in Bristol, and later in the year, Southampton.

My two online events are on 12th May hosted by the Bridport Prize when my literary agent, Jane Finigan from Lutyens and Rubinstein will be in conversation; and on 20th May with Bard Books and Blue Pencil. If you can’t make it to an in-person event, I hope you’ll be able to make it to one of these. Booking will be available soon.

And, if you aren’t in the UK, but would like to come to a US-based online event, then I’ll be online on June 4 6pm EDT.

I hope to see you soon.

The Bookseller Interviews Claire Fuller: Pre-Order Hunger & Thirst

March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 / Claire Fuller / Leave a comment

Cover of The Bookseller magazine featuring a thoughtful woman with short gray hair, wearing a yellow and green top, set against a natural background.

I’m delighted that The Bookseller – the trade magazine for booksellers in the UK – has interviewed me about Hunger and Thirst, and unexpectedly I’m on the cover. Can you spot the extra little fly they’ve added?

I was interviewed by Alice O’Keeffe, who starts with:

Picture a haunted house. What do you see in your mind’s eye? Perhaps a Gothic pile, a ruined tower, some bats? Probably not a suburban bungalow in Hampshire, but that may change once you read Claire Fuller’s genuinely disturbing literary horror, Hunger & Thirst.

You probably need a subscription to The Bookseller to read the rest of it, but you can read it here.

And if it sounds like your kind of thing you can pre-order it here from Bookshop.org, and it will pop through your letterbox on 7th May or thereabouts.

7 Epistolary Novels You Must Read

March 19, 2026March 20, 2026 / Claire Fuller / 2 Comments

A stack of books with a smartphone on top, displaying a colorful screen, in front of a wooden bookshelf filled with various books. Text overlay: 'Seven epistolary books you’ll want to read.'

I recently finished reading (listening to) The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and I loved it. It’s a novel of letters sent and received. Sybil Van Antwerp is in her 70s and has spent a lifetime writing to her best friend, her brother who lives in France, the son of a friend, several famous writers, a customer service agent and various others. We learn about her and her life in what she reveals or hides from others. She’s prickly but compassionate and gradually her own pain is exposed.

Letters in novels, are hard to do, I know because I did it a little in my second novel, Swimming Lessons, and in my fifth, The Memory of Animals. Usually the recipient of the letter knows so much about what the writer is explaining that in real life they would use a sort of shorthand, and yet the reader still needs to know what’s going on. Luckily for us Evans does it brilliantly, so brilliantly it made me cry.

So, I thought I’d do a list of six other books which contain letters and notes. Including Swimming Lessons.

Have you read any of the others, or do you have any to recommend? Let me know.

Continue reading →

Pre-order signed copies of Hunger & Thirst today

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 / Claire Fuller / Leave a comment

My local independent book shop, P&G Wells is offering signed and dedicated copies on pre-orders of Hunger and Thirst. Order it now via their website and just add what you’d like me to write in the book in the orders notes before you check out. Whether that’s simply your name, and my signature, or something more elaborate, I’ll pop into the shop when they have your book in and personalise it with your request. P&G Wells will then contact you let you know it’s ready to be collected, or they can put it in the post. (If you don’t live in the UK, contact them for postage costs.)

Pre-order Hunger and Thirst

Five Great Book Club Books that get the discussion going

February 6, 2026February 6, 2026 / Claire Fuller / 6 Comments

A hand pouring tea from a white teapot into a cup on a wooden stool, with a background of a colorful bookshelf filled with various books. Text overlay: 'Five Great Book Group Books that will get the discussion going.'

So, it’s your turn to choose the next book for book club, and you don’t don’t know what to choose. Here are five that we read in my book group and which generated really interesting discussions. They weren’t the best liked and didn’t receive the highest scores, but these were the ones where we talked the most.

Don’t you think that book groups where people disagree about the book or discover something new are the best?

Let me know the books that have had the best discussions in your book group.

And if you ever choose one of mine, drop me a line and let me know which one you’re reading and I can email you some book group questions.

Continue reading →