'Among the hottest books of this blazing summer' (Daily Telegraph): a bold, lushly written novel that will compel and disquiet in equal measure A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 - CHOSEN BY THE OBSERVER, NEW STATESMAN AND SPECTATOR It is the 1970s and Ralph, an up-and-coming composer, is visiting Edmund Greenslay at his riverside home in Putney to discuss a collaboration. Through the house's colourful rooms and unruly garden flits nine-year-old Daphne - dark, teasing, slippery as mercury, more sprite than boy or girl. From the moment their worlds collide, Ralph is consumed by an obsession to make Daphne his. But Ralph is twenty-five and Daphne is only a child, and even in the bohemian abandon of 1970s London their fast-burgeoning relationship must be kept a secret. It is not until years later that Daphne is forced to confront the truth of her own childhood - and an act of violence that has lain hidden for decades. Putney is a bold, thought-provoking novel about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the memories that play themselves out again and again, like snatches of song.

From the acclaimed author comes a brilliant, challenging novel about a bohemian family in 1970s London and the consequences of a taboo relationship

Ralph Boyd's first glimpse of 9 year-old Daphne will be etched on his mind forever. Dark, teasing, slippery as mercury, she seems neither boy nor girl, but sprite - something elemental.

An up-and-coming composer, Ralph is visiting the writer Edmund Greenslay at his riverside home in Putney to discuss a collaboration. In its colourful rooms and unruly garden, Ralph finds an intoxicating world of sensuous ease and bohemian abandon that captures the mood of the moment. Entranced, he knows he will return. But Ralph is twenty-five and Daphne is only a child, and even in the liberal 1970s a fast-burgeoning relationship between a man and his friend's daughter must be kept secret.

Years later, after a turbulent youth and a failed marriage, Daphne watches her twelve-year-old daughter Libby mimic the gestures of adult sexuality, and is finally forced to confront her own childhood and its shocking truths.

Putney is a bold, thought-provoking novel about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the eyes of society. Written in lyrical, evocative prose, it is a rich tale of family, friendship, guilt and responsibility.

The reader is as deftly manipulated as the child. Pacy and illuminating