Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. A young woman comes to in the Paris restaurant in which she apparently works – she has survived some kind of trauma, but her memories haven't. Something tells her there has been a reprieve. Yet when she crosses paths with a mysterious man called Eagleback, she becomes convinced that he holds the key to her identity. Over the course of a hot, sticky summer, she covertly pursues Eagleback while re-learning how to live. Then she must decide if she is ready to solve the emotional puzzle of her life so far. One Star Awake is a stunningly inventive novel, a thrilling work of art – by turns heartbreaking and hilarious, witty and urgently poetic. This is a fractured fairy tale – a funny and touching testament to the highs and lows of self-discovery and love found in unlikely places.
