Claire Fuller

"Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Inside the walls of their old cottage they make music, and in the garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance. But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. Jeanie and Julius would do anything to preserve their small sanctuary against the perils of the outside world, even as their mother's secrets begin to unravel, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake."--Publisher.

Unsettled Ground

From the attic of Lyntons, a dilapidated English country mansion, Frances Jellico sees them--Cara first: dark and beautiful, then Peter: striking and serious. The couple is spending the summer of 1969 in the rooms below hers while Frances is researching the architecture in the surrounding gardens. But she's distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she finds a peephole that gives her access to her neighbors' private lives. To Frances' surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to get to know her. It is the first occasion she has had anybody to call a friend, and before long they are spending every day together: eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes until the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. Frances is dazzled. But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don't quite add up, and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the glamorous, hedonistic couple, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur. Amid the decadence, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand their lives forever.

Bitter Orange

Returning home to care for her aging father twelve years after her mother's disappearance, Flora discovers that before she went missing, her mother wrote letters to her father about their marriage and hid them among his thousands of books.

Swimming Lessons

Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly unravels the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she’d lost. After Peggy's return to civilization, her mother begins to learn the truth of her escape, of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods, and of the secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.

Our Endless Numbered Days

From the award-winning author of Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange, and Unsettled Ground comes a beautiful and searing novel of memory, love, survival--and octopuses.

The Memory of Animals

From the Costa Novel-Winning Author of Unsettled Ground

Body of Water

Lekcje plywania

A finalist for the Women's Book Prize in Fiction and hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "entrancing," Unsettled Ground is a novel about a family held together by a string of lies, a small town with too many questions, and a sudden death that threatens to undo them all.

1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.

When you live on the edge of society, it only takes one step to fall between the cracks Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armour against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance. But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. At risk of losing everything, Jeanie and her brother must fight to survive in an increasingly cruel and unyielding world as their mother's secrets unfold, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake. This is a powerful novel of betrayal and resilience, love and survival. It is a portrait of life on the fringes of society that explores with dazzling emotional power how we can build our lives on broken foundations, and spin light from darkness.

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021

Peggy Hillcoat ist acht Jahre alt, als ihr Vater James mit ihr zu einer langen Reise aufbricht. Was als Abenteuerurlaub beginnt, entpuppt sich nach einem gewaltigen Unwetter als ihre einzige Chance. Denn der Rest der Welt ist untergegangen, erzählt ihr Vater. Zum Glück hat er sich in der Londoner Prepper-Szene auf das finstere Ende vorbereitet. So gelingt es den beiden, sich zu einer Hütte im Bayerischen Wald durchzuschlagen. Neun Jahre lang werden sie hier der stolzen, launischen Natur trotzen. Sie werden Kaninchen und Eichhörnchen fangen und im Winter Hunger leiden, weil James besessen war von der Idee, ein stummes Klavier zu bauen. Wenn Peggy singend darauf spielt, wird die Welt wieder unendlich weit. 
Licht und Finsternis liegen eng beieinander in dieser düster schimmernden Fabel. Und so hat Peggys Überleben einen fürchterlichen Preis.

Unsere unendlichen Tage

From Desmond Elliot Prize winner Claire Fuller comes a family mystery about a woman's disappearance and her daughter's search for answers. In this spine-tingling tale Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband, Gil, about the truth of their marriage, but she never sends them. Instead she hides them within the thousands of books her husband has collected. After she writes her final letter, Ingrid disappears. Twelve years later, her adult daughter, Flora comes home to look after her injured father. Secretly, Flora has never believed her mother is dead, and she starts asking questions, without realizing that the answers she's looking for are hidden in the books that surround her.

1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Childrenand listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything. She is not seen again for another nine years. 1985: Peggy has returned to the family home. But what happened to her in the forest? And why - and how - has she come back now? As if laying a trail of breadcrumbs for readers to follow, Claire Fuller leads us on an extraordinary and heart-stopping journey as light as it is dark and as joyful as it is horrifying. 'Our Endless Numbered Days is suspenseful, utterly riveting and as dark as midnight in the forest.' Rebecca Hunt, author of Mr Chartwell

Calum Kerr

An anthology of flash-fictions to celebrate National Flash-Fiction Day (UK), showcasing the very best on offer in this small literary form. The tales cross genres from horror to romance, from fantasy to dark reality, but each one will cause a new star to shine in your imagination. Authors include: Sarah Hilary, Angela Readman, Claire Fuller, Paul McVeigh, Santino Prinzi, Nik Perring, Meg Pokrass, Michelle Elvy, Tim Stevenson, Debbie Young, Kevlin Henney, Nuala Ní Chonchúir and NFFD Director, Calum Kerr.

2016 National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology

A Box of Stars Beneath the Bed

The second novel from the author of Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize and was a 2016 Richard and Judy Book Club Pick. 'Thrilling, transporting, delicately realised and held together by a sophisticated sense of suspense...more than matches the power of Fuller's debut... Powerful , pleasing and pleasurable.' Sunday Times 'Gil Coleman looked down from the window and saw his dead wife standing on the pavement below.' Gil's wife, Ingrid has been missing, presumed drowned, for twelve years. A possible sighting brings their children, Nan and Flora, home. Together they begin to confront the mystery of their mother. Is Ingrid dead? Or did she leave? And do the letters hidden within Gil's books hold the answer to the truth behind his marriage, a truth hidden from everyone including his own children?

Part fairy-tale, part magic, yet always savagely realistic Claire Fuller's haunting and powerful debut Our Endless Numbered Days will appeal to fans of Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child and Christian Baker Kline's Orphan Train . Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly begins to unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she’d lost. After Peggy's return to civilization, her mother learns the truth of her escape, of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods, and of the secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.

Our Endless Numbered Days: A Novel

À 39 ans, Frances Jellico s’apprête à vivre son premier été de liberté. Enfin délivrée de son tyran de mère, Frances a été missionnée pour faire l’état des lieux du domaine de Lyntons. Jadis somptueuse propriété au cœur de la campagne anglaise, Lyntons est désormais un manoir délabré qui peine à se relever des années de guerre. Dès son arrivée, Frances réalise qu’elle n’est pas la seule occupante des lieux : Peter et Cara, un couple aussi séduisant que mystérieux, sont déjà installés. Lorsqu’elle découvre un judas dans le plancher de sa chambre – qui lui offre une vue plongeante sur leur salle de bains – sa fascination pour eux ne connaît plus de limites. Ses voisins se montrent très amicaux, et plus les jours passent, plus Frances se rapproche d’eux. À mesure que l’été se consume, que les bouteilles de vin se vident et que les cendres de cigarettes se répandent sur le vieux mobilier, Frances commence à entrevoir le passé tourmenté de Cara et Peter. La vérité laisse place au mensonge, les langues se délient, les souvenirs ressurgissent, au risque de faire basculer cet été 1969. « Un page-turner à l’atmosphère déroutante, sombre et épineuse. » Gabriel Tallent, (My Absolute Darling)

Claire Fuller

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