WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2012

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013

WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK AWARD 2013

WINNER OF THE SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE 2013

What if everything youd ever wanted was no longer enough?

Adam and Rachel are getting married at last. Childhood sweethearts whose lives and families have been intertwined for years; theirs is set to be the wedding of the year.

Butthen Rachels cousin Ellie makes an unexpected return to the family fold. Beautiful, reckless and troubled, Ellie represents everything that Adam has tried all his life to avoid and everything that is missing from his world. As the long-awaited wedding approaches, Adam is torn between duty and temptation, security and freedom, and must make a choice that will break either one heart, or many.

'Wonderful...wittyan astonishingly accomplished debut which will draw comparisons between Segal and Zadie Smith and Monica Ali'Stylist

Francesca Segal was born in London in 1980. Brought up in the UK and America, she studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared inGranta, theGuardian, theFinancial Timesand both American and BritishVogue, amongst others. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction Column in theObserverand she has been a Features Writer atTatler.The Innocentsis her first novel.

A very modern love story which tells the age-old tale of love, temptation, confusion, commitment, and coming to terms with the choices we've made