God on the Rocks

Longlisted for the Booker Prize, God on the Rocks tells the story of Margaret Marsh's coming of age one summer between the world wars. Caught between her fervently religious father, a bitterly nostalgic mother, and the bawdy jokes of her nanny, Margaret escapes her home life by roaming the meadows and beaches of coastal England. When she meets two of her mother's childhood friends, they reveal a side to her mother that she has never known, unearthing long buried tensions as Margaret's world hurtles towards a moment of truth.

With subtlety and precision, God on the Rocks provides an intimate portrait of the tensions that divide men and women, and the love and sorrow that always linger.

Jane Gardam has twice won the Whitbread Award, for The Hollow Land, and Queen of the Tambourine. She is also the author of God on the Rocks, which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and most recently, Faith Fox.