In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her loveless marriage to join an ashram, endured a brief stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing after a dishevelled, homeless 'artist' - all with her young child in tow. Now she is forgetting things, mixing up her maid's wages and leaving the gas on all night, and her grown-up daughter is faced with the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her. This is a love story and a story about betrayal.
But not between lovers - between mother and daughter. Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar unpicks the slippery cords of memory and myth that bind two women together, and hold them apart.
'Daring and deliciously dark, Burnt Sugar will keep you gripped until the very last sentence' Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past is a Foreign Country.
'Raw, wise and cuttingly funny on love and cruelty, marriage and motherhood, art and illness, and one woman's fight for her sense of self' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Starling Days.
Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2020.
ISBN 9780241989142
After five long years of waiting for a new novel, Dawn's millions of fans will fall in love with this tantalising story of motherhood.
This is a book about mothers and daughters, love and loss, mistakes and regret. It's a book about nature and nurture. Ultimately, it's a book about what makes us who we are - it is a story for all of us.
Following her wonderful bestsellers A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Oh Dear Silvia and According to Yes, Because Of You is Dawn French's stunning new book, told with her signature humour, warmth and so much love.
ISBN 9781405927338