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The Palm House
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Check link for latest rating. ( 27 ratings, 12 reviews)
Brief Description
The Palm House follows Edmund Putnam, who is just days away from the end of his 50th year. His solitary life is on the brink of change. The magazine to which he has dedicated his best decades faces closure, and Edmund is likely to lose his...
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Format: Paperback / softback
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See moreFrom the Womenβs Prize-shortlisted author of First Love and My Phantoms comes a novel of enduring friendships and small mercies from one of the most acclaimed writers of her generation.
Three lives take a turn in this comedy of 21st century London life, from the Women's Prize Shortlisted author of FIRST LOVE
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Description
The Palm House follows Edmund Putnam, who is just days away from the end of his 50th year. His solitary life is on the brink of change. The magazine to which he has dedicated his best decades faces closure, and Edmund is likely to lose his job this coming Monday morning. However, before this fateful event can occur, there are other equally daunting prospects to face: a date and a birthday.
Edmund's close friend, Laura, is concerned for him. She is about a decade younger, also employed by the same magazine, but she has the chance to escape. Laura has been offered the opportunity to leave the country and work abroad, but can she bring herself to take it?
Meanwhile, Edmund's father, Martin, has discovered a new zest for life. He has fallen in love with a waitress at a local cafΓ© and has decided to rescue her from her brutish husband.
Unfolding over the course of a single weekend, as these three drifters reassess their fates and futures, The Palm House reads between the lines of modern life in a country slipping back into its past. Gwendoline Riley presents a novel that showcases her heartfelt and bravura style at its best.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781035021055
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 02 April 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Picador
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 224
About the Author
GWENDOLINE RILEY was born in London in 1979. She is the author of My Phantoms, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize; of First Love, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction; and of Cold Water, Sick Notes, Joshua Spassky, and Opposed Positions. She has also won a Betty Trask Award and a Somerset Maugham Award, and has been shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2018, The Times Literary Supplement named her as one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today.
Also by Gwendoline Riley
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My Phantoms
From the Women's Prize-Shortlisted author of First Love Helen Grant has always been a mystery to her daughter. Twice-divorced, with few friends, her desire to join in is matched only by her need to stand apart. As Bridget looks back over their fractious relationship, she is forced to confront the cruelties inflicted on both sides. My Phantoms is an insightful,...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
First Love
A singular, devastating journey into the ungovernable reaches of the heart Observer SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017 First Love is centred around Neve, a writer in her mid-30s married to an older man, Edwyn. For now, they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions...PaperbackSold Out -
First Love
Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017 First Love follows Neve, a writer in her mid-30s, married to an older man, Edwyn. For now, they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that led her to this marriage, she narrates stories of other loves and other...PaperbackSold Out
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