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First Love

Series: Granta Shorts
Brief Description
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... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
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Releases 7th July 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order  "First Love" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

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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 that led her to this marriage, she tells of other loves and other debts, from her bullying father and her self-involved mother to a musician who played her and a series of lonely flights from place to place.

Drawing the reader into the battleground of her relationship, Neve spins a story of helplessness and hostility, an ongoing conflict in which both husband and wife have played a part. But is this, nonetheless, also a story of love?

Series: Granta Shorts

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781803513560

Publisher: Granta Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 09 April 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Granta Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 176

About the Author

Gwendoline Riley was born in London in 1979 and has been hailed as one of the most significant young British writers. She is is the author of six novels, including My Phantoms, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, and First Love, which was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Literature, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. She has also been awarded 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.

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