Ordinary People

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE 2019

Two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Melissa has a new baby and doesn't want to let it change her. Damian has lost his father and intends not to let it get to him. Michael is still in love with Melissa but can't quite get close enough to her to stay faithful. Stephanie just wants to live a normal, happy life on the commuter belt with Damian and their three children but his bereavement is getting in the way.

Set in London to an exhilarating soundtrack, Ordinary People is an intimate study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, friendship and ageing, and the fragile architecture of love.

'Diana is so amazing when it comes to writing about humans and relationships... about how we change, grow, and fall away from each other... I don't know anyone who's as skilled as her' — Candice Carty-Williams, Oprah Magazine

A funny, sad novel about two couples on the brink of crisis from 'a lyrical and glorious writer' — Naomi Alderman