*** Winner of the John Llewelyn Prize*** Beautifully written mind games. Anna Raine, is desperate: to escape Somerset, to evade her mother, and above all, to find a model of adulthood on whom to base her future self.

When Stella, her mother's thrillingly reckless younger sister, offers her her London flat, Anna's buried curiosity about Stella quickly becomes fascination. As her investigations lead her from videos to wardrobes, from Stella's private bathroom to her bed, she discovers a shocking letter, and a photograph of Stella and another woman at a party.

Darker secrets, she is certain, lie within her reach. While by day Anna feigns efficient adulthood, by night she sinks into an increasingly heated world of discovery, wild supposition and desire. As secrets rise to the surface and her fantasies begin to flower, she tries to distract herself from the thoughts of Stella and the feelings they engender, and from that transfixing birthday photograph. But the truth has its own momentum, and when Stella returns from Paris, something, or everything is going to give.

Paperback - 256 pages