A Very Nice Girl

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2023** **A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR** **A GRAZIA BOOK OF THE YEAR** **SELECTED FOR MALALA'S BOOK CLUB** 'Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People ' MEG MASON, author of SORROW AND BLISS 'Haunting and bleakly compelling ... A writer of promise' SUNDAY TIMES 'An absorbing debut about sex and power' GUARDIAN 'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES 'One of the buzziest debut novels this spring' VOGUE Anna is struggling to afford life in London as she trains to be a singer. During the day, she vies to succeed against her course mates with their discreet but inexhaustible streams of cultural capital and money, and in the evening she sings jazz at a bar in the City to make ends meet. Here she meets Max, a financier fourteen years older than her. Over the course of one winter, Anna's intoxication oscillates between her hard-won moments on stage, where she can zip herself into the skin of her characters, and nights spent with Max in his glass-walled flat overlooking the city. But Anna's fledgling career demands her undivided attention, and increasingly - whether he necessarily wills it or not - so does Max. 'Elegant and witty ... A precursor to great things' THE TIMES 'A beautifully written examination of the psychology of sex, power, ambition and love' DAILY MAIL