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Lack

Brief Description
Cecilia Knapp beautifully captures the experience of contemporary womanhood in this lyrical and insightful novel. A genuine triumph — ELIZA CLARK Poignant to the bone. Lack is both masterfully, poetically complex and beautifully easy to read — GEMMA CAIRNEY In the quiet, lonely hours of the... Read More
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'Cecilia Knapp beautifully captures the experience of contemporary womanhood in this lyrical and insightful novel. A genuine triumph' ELIZA CLARK 'Poignant to the bone. Lack is both masterfully, poetically complex and beautifully easy to read' GEMMA CAIRNEY

The poignant new literary fiction novel for 2026

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Cecilia Knapp beautifully captures the experience of contemporary womanhood in this lyrical and insightful novel. A genuine triumph — ELIZA CLARK

Poignant to the bone. Lack is both masterfully, poetically complex and beautifully easy to read — GEMMA CAIRNEY

In the quiet, lonely hours of the middle of the night, a woman scrolls social media on her phone. Babies are everywhere. All her friends seem to have one. But she is full of doubt – just the creep sniffing at the window. How can she consider the enormity of new life when the world outside is burning?

Besides, there’s something wrong in her body. She can feel it: pain, a constant dull ache she is too frightened to investigate.

And then there’s something darker, pulsing beneath the surface, threatening to catch up with her. Hers is a life deeply affected by grief and chaos; the death of her mother, a long-buried sexual assault, and a drawn-out affair with a married actor of middling fame and maximum ego – full of glamour, hedonism, obsession and control.

Is it possible to rebuild, when all you feel is lack?

––-

A stunning poet and an equally gorgeous storyteller. I love everything Cecilia Knapp writes — HOLLIE MCNISH

Cecilia Knapp is a great writer. I love her — KAE TEMPEST

I really love Cecilia’s writing. It's sharp. Cuts to the quick. And offers my favourite thing, a real insight into the minds of women and all the things we don't often get to say out loud — SALMA EL-WARDANY

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780008827892

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 July 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: The Borough Press

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 270g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Cecilia Knapp is a poet and playwright. She has read work all over the UK and internationally including residencies in Paris and Johannesburg. Commissions include the TATE, Guardian, Huffington Post, Dazed, The Stage and the BBC. She featured in Vogue as one of the UK's young writers to watch. She was shortlisted for the 2020 Outspoken poetry prize, and made Young People's Laureate for London in 2020. Her poems have been widely anthologised. Her first theatre show, Finding Home, an exploration of the loss of her older brother to suicide, toured UK theatres extensively. Her latest play, Losing the Night, recently premiered at the Roundhouse, enjoying a sold-out run before a UK tour. She was poet in residence at Great Ormond Street Hospital for two years and currently tutors the Roundhouse poetry collective. She is an ambassador for mental health charity CALM. Little Boxes is her first novel.

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