Sugar and Snails

Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize: a beautifully triumphant midlife coming of age novel about identity, second chances, and the cost of secrets.

At fifteen, Diana made a life-changing decision. Thirty years on, it's time to make another.

When Diana escaped her misfit childhood, she thought she'd chosen the easier path. But the past lingers on, etched beneath her skin, and life won't be worth living if her secret gets out.

As an adult, she's kept other people at a distance... until Simon sweeps in on a cloud of promise and possibility. But his work is taking him to Cairo, the city that transformed her life. She'll lose Simon if she doesn't join him. She'll lose herself if she does.

Sugar and Snails charts Diana's unusual journey, revealing the scars from her fight to be true to herself. A triumphant mid-life coming-of-age story about bridging the gap between who we are and who we feel we ought to be.

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A quietly devastating debut about how shame weathers and shapes a life over decades, and what it costs to finally speak. Perfect for readers of Claire Messud, Alison Moore, and Torrey Peters who value character-led literary fiction and stories of LGBTQ+ selfhood told with tenderness and hard-won hope.

"A brave and bold emotional roller-coaster of a read. I was hooked from the start and in bits by the end." - Rebecca Root, actor (Queen's Gambit, Heartstopper)

"An absorbing, clever and heartening debut novel." - Alison Moore, author of Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse

Please note: This novel contains depictions of self-harm.

Anne Goodwin's drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.Anne writes about the darkness that haunts her and is wary of artificial light. She makes stuff up to tell the truth about adversity, creating characters to care about and stories that make you think. She explores identity, mental health and social justice with compassion, humour and hope.An award-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.In 2022, Anne branched out into self-publishing with her first novella, Stolen Summers, the prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home. The sequel, Lyrics for the Loved Ones, was longlisted for the Lakeland Book of the Year.Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.