In the late summer of 1913 George Sawle brings the charming aristocratic young poet Cecil Valance to his family's modest home. The shared intimacies of this weekend link the Sawle & Valance families irrevocably becoming legendary events in a larger story told & interpreted in different ways over the coming century. Throughout this richly comic history of sexual mores & literary reputation we follow the two families in a series of widely spaced episodes through startling changes in fortune & circumstance. An impeccably nuanced exploration of changing taste class & social etiquette The Strange's Child written in deliciously witty & observant prose is an enthralling novel from one of the finest writers in the English language. ' With The Stranger's Child an already remarkable talent unfurls into something spectacular' Sunday Times 'A remarkable unmissable achievement.. . One leaves the novel with a sense of the truly extraordinary' Independent ' Elegant seductive & extremely enjoyable to read.. . The Stranger's Child will no doubt be one of the best novels published this year' Guardian