Are You Awake?

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Are You Awake? Written and read by Sarah Crossan.

'Funny and dark. Tender and tough. Uncanny and relatable.' Erin Kelly
'Deeply moving, simultaneously delicate yet hard-hitting' Claire Kilroy
'Blends comedy, drama and heartbreak' John Boyne
'A really clever novel' Cecelia Ahern
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Previously published as Hey, Zoey

On an ordinary morning in an ordinary house, a woman discovers a secret her husband has been keeping. It is a secret that explodes their marriage.

As Dolores grapples with her new reality, she unwillingly delves into her past to work out how she got here, unpicking the seams of the relationships that have built her. She’s a sister, a daughter, a wife, a teacher. How much does her past have to influence her present? Can’t she just forgive and forget?

And most importantly: what is a woman for, anyway?
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'Bleak, but also hilarious ... Crossan's deadpan style is bone dry' Daily Mail
'A singular writer with her own style and conviction' Irish Times
'Inventive, astute and funny' Observer
'A roller-coaster read' i
'Dark humour ... offbeat tenderness ... plenty to say about contemporary intimacy' Mail on Sunday

Critics Review

Highly inventive, astute and funny ... A thought-provoking reflection on loneliness, love and the search for connection
Observer
Hilarious … Crossan’s deadpan style is bone-dry, and Dolores’s conversations with Zoey are the best bits of all
Daily Mail
Deep, relatable, depressing, and darkly funny ... Crossan has a knack for capturing utterly normal conversations and trains of thought in ways that are arresting ... Propelled by its style and by the beauty of its prose … Keeps the reader gripped until the last page … It is a deep exploration of the intricacies of human connections and intimacy, as well as an examination of trauma (especially childhood trauma) and its ability to influence our lives, even if we are determined not to let it do so
Irish Independent
A roller-coaster read
i
A singular writer with her own style and conviction ... Thought-provoking ... How do we write about trauma? Ask Sarah Crossan
The Times
Dark humour and offbeat tenderness enhance the intense readability of a book that has plenty to say about contemporary intimacy
Mail on Sunday
Funny and dark. Tender and tough. Uncanny and relatable ... A searing novel about true intimacy and the things humans will do to protect themselves from it. You’ve never read anything quite like it, and only Sarah Crossan could have written it
Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key and Watch Her Fall
Brilliant, provocative, and darkly funny ... explores the impossibility of connection, and the things we hide from ourselves and the people we love
Sarah Dunn, author of The Arrangement
Examining how humanity can be found in unexpected places, one of our most inventive writers, Sarah Crossan, blends comedy, drama and heartbreak in a novel that is as surprising as it is memorable
John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
Unique, refreshing and revelatory. Sarah Crossan excels at subtle subversion, marrying delicious dark wit with deep empathy to produce work that reads the zeitgeist perfectly. This stylish, provocative novel isn’t afraid to push the bruise!
Helen Cullen, author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually
This darkly funny modern love story had me gripped all the way from its compelling opening to its unexpectedly moving and worrying conclusion ... A sharp and sometimes shocking exploration of relationships between friends, lovers and family. It’s intriguing, fresh, and satisfyingly complex; it makes you think, and it makes you feel
Lesley Glaister, author of Little Egypt
A flight of the imagination mapping the twilight zone of broken love. Highly original, deeply moving, simultaneously delicate yet hard hitting, Crossan is elegantly devastating in her ability to evoke our tender, unguarded selves
Claire Kilroy, author of Soldier Sailor
Readers will enjoy this astute page-turner
Publisher's Weekly
Easy to read and equally hard to forget
Kirkus, starred review
Weird and wild ... You won't be able to put it down
VIP Magazine
A love triangle, but with a twist
Guardian
A funny, insightful tale of love and complicated families
Marie Claire
A roller-coaster read
Heat
A well-paced journey … Dark and foreboding, yet light and moving… Crossan embraces silence on the page and never overstates the obvious. What is left unsaid are among the parts that shout the loudest
Independent

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