A short from Louise Doughty to stir the heart and awaken vital conversations about love.
A young woman turns off her phone and books herself into a deserted seaside hotel. In a state of shock, she starts small conversations with the staff and begins to unfurl, until someone turns up to claim her.
Louise Doughty is the author of eight novels, one work of non-fiction, and five plays for radio. Her latest book, Black Water, is out now from Faber & Faber UK and Farrar Straus & Giroux in the US, where it was nominated as one of the New York Times Book Review Notable Books of 2016. Her seventh novel was the number-one bestseller Apple Tree Yard. Shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award and the National Book Award Thriller of the Year, it has sold half a million copies in the UK alone to date and been translated into thirty languages worldwide. A four-part TV adaptation with Emily Watson in the lead role was broadcast on Sunday nights on BBC1. Doughty’s sixth novel, Whatever You Love, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has also won awards for radio drama and short stories, along with publishing one work of non-fiction, A Novel in a Year, based on her popular newspaper column. She is a critic and cultural commentator for UK and international newspapers, andbroadcasts regularly for the BBC, and has been the judgefor many prizes and awards including the Man Booker Prizeand the Costa Novel Award. She lives in London.
