The moving second novel from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award

'A singular novel from the poetic and painterly mind of Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

'An exquisite rendering of love, sadness, and misunderstanding . . . I want to share this book with everyone I know.' The Paris Review

'A quiet triumph - tenderly and disarmingly exploring the responsibility of love, loneliness, what it is to feel lost' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure

Mina is staring over the edge of the George Washington Bridge when a patrol car drives up. She tries to convince the officers she's not about to jump but they don't believe her. Her husband, Oscar is called to pick her up.

Oscar hopes that leaving New York for a few months will give Mina the space to heal. They travel to London, to an apartment wall-papered with indigo-eyed birds, to Oscars oldest friends, to a canal and blooming flower market. Mina, a classicist, searches for solutions to her failing mental health using mythological women. But she finds a beam of light in a living woman. Friendship and attraction blossom until Oscar and Mina's complicated love is tested.

For readers looking for a 'relatable' tale of struggle and survival, the book offers consolation.