A Perfect Explanation

Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize 2019

Longlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize 2019

Observer: Fiction to look out for in 2019

The i Paper’s 30 of the best new debut novels to read in 2019

Scottish Review of Books: 2019 in Prospect

As featured on BBC Woman’s Hour, Sky Sunrise and London Live

‘Filled with cerebral intensity and scintillating dialogue’ -The Desmond Elliott Prize

Exploring themes of ownership and abandonment, Eleanor Anstruther’s bestselling debut is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell (1892-1964), granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll.

Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood. Here, in the pages of this extraordinary book where the unspoken is conveyed with vivid simplicity, lies a story that will leave you reeling.