The Awkward Age - Softcover

"It’s beautifully written" (Victoria Hislop Good Housekeeping)

"A very smart, soulful, compelling, elegantly written domestic novel" (Nick Hornby Observer)

"Francesca Segal is incisive on modern lives, penetrating and thoughtful - and yet always joyfully entertaining and stylishly readable." (Naomi Alderman)

"Segal’s wit and intelligence are entirely her own and the moral dilemmas of her characters could not be more modern... Segal has a superb eye for the lies that the middle-aged lovers tell themselves, and they are jolted back to reality when it all goes spectacularly wrong. It is nearly a tragedy, but not quite; she’s just too funny" (Kate Saunders The Times)

"Elegant... an entertaining look at the messy business of trying to be in a family in emotionally trying circumstances... Irresistible" (Eithne Farry Mail on Sunday)

"A story that is equal parts hilarious and devastating" (Vogue)

"Francesa Segal is precise and funny, and The Awkward Age is brimming with keen observations of the highest order--the clever, the sore, and the sublime." (Emma Straub)

"Segal... is a sharp observer of the tribulations of teenage love and modern relationships. Particularly strong on how blind parents are towards their ghastly offspring’s flaws, this book is a lively, quick-witted performance" (The Sunday Times)

"In Francesca Segal’s magnificent new novel The Awkward Age, romantic and parental love go head to head, stress-testing loyalties and bonds with heartbreaking consequences... Genius... An impressively nuanced and convincing portrait of maternal love... a painful delight to read, invoking a perfectly balanced oscillation between compassion and frustration" (Lucy Scholes Independent)

"Themes of non-nuclear family life, the everyday fractures and renovations inherent to relationships of any kind, amid moments of pitch-perfect comic tension... Segal navigates these re-drawn battle lines with skill and sensitivity... There is no precise time, we are reminded, at which life becomes less tangled, at which personalities are formed as in aspic: we can see that all ages are awkward, but some are more awkward than others" (Zoë Apostolides Financial Times)

'A very smart, soulful, compelling novel' Nick Hornby

What does it take to be a family?

Julia has fallen deeply, unexpectedly in love. James is her second chance, and everything she never knew she wanted. It’s perfect but for two things: their children.

Julia’s beloved daughter Gwen loathes James and James’s son Nathan takes pleasure in antagonising his new stepsister. Uniting two households is never easy, but the teenagers’ unexpected actions will eventually threaten everyone’s hard-won happiness.