The Sunshine Years - Softcover

"Witty, warm and observant enough to shine light into the darkest corners; a mesmerising read" (The Times)

"Knight expertly captures that particular guilt and self-loathing that amplifies the internal misery of the outwardly successful. Her best creation is mediocre lawyer JP, a man who rages impotently at life by leaving abusive comments beneath online articles. Everyone in this world struggles to connect despite always being connected, the “men tippetty-tapping with thumbs, texting their life stories all about town, average as sandwiches, boring as soup.”" (Financial Times)

"Working with shifting points of view to bring her portrait of collective disaffection and internal dissonance into sharp focus, Knight keeps a disciplined hold on her material... the uncompromising honesty is impressive. So, too, is her skill in eliciting sympathy for even the most unlikely character" (Sunday Times)

"The characters are like ants under a magnifying glass, and Knight masterfully creates a suffocating atmosphere... a brave and poignant indictment of 21st-century living." (Daily Telegraph)

"THE SUNSHINE YEARS is a brilliant story by one of Britain's best young writers. It is a passionate, stylish novel that tells the big new truths about relationships, and is one of those books that shimmers with ideas and observations. Afsaneh Knight is a star" (Andrew O'Hagan)

Do you ever wonder where your life is going?
You are not alone.

Story (that’s his name) can feel a middle-youth crisis coming on. He’s got a great job, a great flat and great mates:
Mac, who is obsessed with biscuits;
JP, who never says anything if it’s nice;
Cannie, whose only admirer is the bird that lives outside her window;
and
Vincent, who has finally proposed to his girlfriend after nineteen years.

But alongside the drinks and the kicks, what has any of them actually done? And why is time passing like sand in a sieve?

Is it possible to turn life around? Life is just life, right? And change is a gasping and slippery fish. . .