‘A wonderfully clever and howlingly funny thriller’ The Spectator ‘Glitters with secret agendas, hidden lies and sun-soaked desires’ Emma Stonex ‘Whip-smart and made me laugh out loud. Magnificent’ Joanna Cannon ‘Thorny and sexy’ Beth Morrey ‘Pulsing with heat and intrigue’ Marianne Levy What if your perfect life was a charade? It is August, and eight old friends have gathered at a country house for a writers’ retreat. By day, there is reading beside the pool or writing in the shady corners of the estate.

In the evenings – drinks, dinner outdoors, games, midnight swimming. But as temperatures rise in the stifling last days of summer, tensions do too. Old jealousies, new temptations and bitter rivalries bubble to the surface.

By the end of the week, friendships – and lives – will have changed forever. Astute, witty and page-turning, The Book Game is a novel about ambition, competition, regret and desire; about paths not taken and last chances suddenly seized; about the games people play. It asks what it means, in all senses, to be in the middle of life.