My fifth novel, The Memory of Animals is published today in the UK in hardback, ebook and audio book. Buy a buy a copy from your lovely local independent book shop, Waterstones, or from Bookshop.org. Or the audio book from Audible.

Here’s what Penguin says about it:

From the Costa-Winning, Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of Unsettled Ground: a gripping, haunting novel about memory, love and survival, for readers of Never Let me Go and Leave the World Behind

Neffy is a young woman running away from grief and guilt, and the one big mistake that has derailed her career. When she answers the call to volunteer in a controlled vaccine trial, it offers her a way to pay off her many debts and, perhaps, to make up for the past.

But when the London streets below her window fall silent, and all external communications cease, only Neffy and four other volunteers remain in the unit. With food running out, and a growing sense that the strangers she is with may be holding back secrets, Neffy has questions that no one can answer. Does safety lie inside or beyond the unit? And who, or what is out there?

While she weighs up her choices, she is introduced to a pioneering and controversial technology which allows her to revisit memories from her life before: a childhood divided between her enigmatic mother and her father in his small hotel in Greece. Intoxicated by the freedom of the past and the chance to reunite with those she loves, she increasingly turns away from her perilous present. But in this new world where survival rests on the bonds between strangers, is she jeopardising any chance of a future?

The Memory of Animals is a taut and emotionally charged novel about freedom and captivity, survival and sacrifice and whether you can save anyone before you save yourself.

‘Another literary page-turner … Compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!’ Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

‘Haunting and unsettling, moving and thoughtful, with horror lurking at the edges, this is a subtle, elegant novel. Claire Fuller is a huge talent’ Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane

I’ll be doing lots of events around the UK, so please do join me at one if you can. https://clairefuller.co.uk/upcoming-events/

I’m really excited that my fifth novel, The Memory of Animals will be published by Tin House in the US and Canada in June 2023. The novel has also changed title. It will be published by Penguin in the UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada), also under the title, The Memory of Animals.

Here’s the Tin House Deal, announced yesterday in Publishers Weekly, with a little taster of what the book is about:

I’m absolutely delighted to let you know that my UK publisher Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin will publish my fifth novel, Body of Water, in spring 2023.

The press release published in The Bookseller says:

Continue reading →

As Patron of the Winchester branch of Read Easy (a UK charity which helps adults learn to read), I’m delighted to be talking at their coffee and cake morning on 9th June 2022. Rick Stein Restaurant are kindly providing the coffee (or tea) and cake and their restaurant for the morning.

I’ll be talking about Unsettled Ground and its theme of struggling to read and how that affects the main character, Jeanie. Read Easy will talk about the work they do, and one of their students will talk about how learning to read has changed his life. There will also be a book draw, where, for a cash donation you’ll have a chance to win one of several book prizes donated by Waterstones, P&G Wells, and Penguin Books.

The event starts at 9.30am and lasts until 11.15am at Rick Stein, 8 High Street, Winchester, SO23 9JX. Tickets cost £12 each including an Eventbrite fee, and are limited – so get yours soon! Click here to book yours.

Today, April 26 2022, the beautiful paperback of Unsettled Ground is published in the US by Tin House. I’m delighted with the cover, designed by Holly Ovenden, and of course that it includes the Costa Book Award Winner sticker, as well as mention of the novel’s shortlisting for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. I hope that Unsettled Ground will find a whole new readership in the US. If you read the US paperback, I’d love it if you took a picture of the book and posted it on whichever social media you use. Don’t forget to tag me or let me know so I can thank you.

To find out what Unsettled Ground is about, visit this page for a synopsis, reviews and interviews.

The paperback is available from all US bookstores, either in store or available to order. Or you can buy online. Click here to find a selection of places to buy the book from.

Happy reading!

So, although Unsettled Ground was one of the six novels shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, it didn’t win. The wonderful, Piranesi was announced the winner at the award ceremony last week. I can’t deny some disappointment, but I really enjoyed Susanna Clarke’s second novel (published after a long illness and sixteen years after her debut), and think it is a very worthy winner. And, it was amazing to be out in London, firstly reading from Unsettled Ground to an audience of 450 people (so great to be reading in front of ‘real’ people again), and on the following night attending the prize party. After the announcement I was finally able to relax and enjoy myself, and catch up with lots of old friends and meet lots of people who also love books. Thanks for having me, Women’s Prize!