Hourglass: Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2022

‘A universal love story’ Guardian

‘Beautiful and very funny’ Brett Anderson

‘This book glows in the heart of the reader’ Max Porter

‘This book is such a sneaky head f*ck - an epic poem in an ancient style about the brutalities of modern love, a masculine interrogation of feminine heartbreak, a really beautiful way to spend an evening’ Lena Dunham

The second time you came, we went from bar to bar to bar. It made the city feel smaller. Like a map we were folding to the size of a stamp. We were good at that. We could have fit an entire universe inside a matchbox.

Love builds up little by little and that’s why it makes people reach for words like root and sediment and other words to do with rocks and trees. But what about the dismantling? Does it happen that way too? Because it feels like it is happening much, much faster. And I am reaching for words like landslide and like wave and like storm …

Exquisitely crafted, wildly imaginative and as darkly funny as it is moving, Hourglass is a revolutionary love story. It turns time upside down, combs the intimate wreckage of heartbreak for something universal, and asks what it means to lose what you love.

‘Hourglass will stay with me for a long time. Hypnotic’ Lemn Sissay

‘Evocative, ecstatic and saturated with off-kilter wit’ Alexandra Kleeman