Well, This Is Awkward: The hilarious and uplifting debut novel about finding a family when you least expect it. 'Brilliant' — Georgia Toffolo

Mairéad, a child-free talent agency head, has her orderly life upended when her estranged sister's daughter comes to stay after a mysterious accident. What begins as a temporary arrangement soon throws everything into question.

'Warm and funny, what a joy!' Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed

'Sharp and funny and full of quirk and heart' Francesca Segal

'It's a page-turner' Spectator

Mairéad is single, child-free and head of a successful influencer talent agency. The young people at work may be mean to her, she hasn’t seen her only sister for nine years and she’s one bad date away from giving up on men completely – but other than that, she’s got life sorted.

Until Sunshine shows up. When her militant, off-grid sister has a mysterious accident, Mairéad’s inscrutable niece comes to stay, turning life upside down. It’s just for a couple of weeks – surely Mairéad can manage that?

But Sunshine makes her look at every single aspect of her life with different eyes. And Mairéad’s afraid nothing will be the same again.

'I adored this lovely debut about an off-grid child and her sophisticated urban aunt' Wendy Holden, Daily Mail

'Walker offers smart, peppy humour and good comic characters who power her tale along with brio' The Times

'Superb. Brilliant. I adored it... Esther Walker is smart and so funny' Georgia Toffolo

Esther Walker is a lifestyle journalist whose work has appeared in The Times and The Sunday Times, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the i and Grazia. She is the author of the cult cooking blog Recipe Rifle and now writes the Substack newsletter The Spike, which has 6,000 subscribers. Her first two non-fiction books The Bad Cook and The Bad Mother are available as ebooks. Esther also co-hosts an award-nominated weekly topical podcast with her husband for The Times, called Giles Coren Has No Idea.