Pool House

'A sharp, hilarious, unsparing mother-daughter story' Rachel Khong
'Culturally incisive and relentlessly smart' Michelle Zauner
'A magnum opus and a vibe' Bryan Washington

Stevie cannot wait to escape her mother. Whilst many people dream of moving to LA and into the spotlight, she is desperate to get out and start over.

Moon is many things: an out-of-work actress, a recovering addict, a nineties iconoclast, a dysfunctional mother - and whatever a mistress becomes when she's widowed. Reeling in the aftermath of her lover and TV husband's death, Moon is plunged into despair. The last thing she expects is for her daughter to leave her too.

Neither Stevie nor Moon can afford to quit each other, having been forced to move into the glass pool house in their back yard while their home is rented out to pay the bills. When Adam, Moon's former TV son and Stevie's girlhood crush, arrives for the funeral, the three of them are pulled into a messy triangle, moving back into the Big House and play-acting a picture-perfect family, even as tensions rise and relationships unravel.

Hilarious, biting and unexpectedly moving, Pool House is a brilliantly observed novel about the complexities of love, sex, fame, family and grief, and an unforgettable portrait of two women grappling with what it means to grow up and grow older in Hollywood.