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Blank Canvas

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Introducing an outstanding new voice in literary fiction: a sensual, sharp, and utterly compelling campus novel about grief, reinvention, and the ripple effects of telling lies

If I ever woke up with an ungodly dread — that I could change it all now, turn around, and confess — I ignored it. I had never been good, and there was no point in trying now.

On a small liberal arts campus in upstate New York, Charlotte begins her final year with a lie. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden.

Charlotte had never been close with her classmates but as she repeats her tale, their expressions soften into kindness. And so she learns there are things worth lying for: attention, affection, and, as she embarks on a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. All she needs to do is keep control of the threads that hold her lie – and her life – together.

But six thousand miles away, alone in the grey two-up-two-down Staffordshire terrace she grew up in, her father is very much alive, watching television and drinking beer. Charlotte has always kept difficult truths at arm’s length, but his resolve to visit his distant daughter might just be the one thing she can’t control.

‘The kind of interior voice that ensnares you … The art college campus novel I’ve always wanted.... Grace Murray is one of those writers who you can devote yourself to' CLAIRE KOHDA, AUTHOR OF WOMAN, EATING

© Grace Murray 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

Blank Canvas is razor-edged and emotionally rich, an unflinching portrait of identity and loneliness. Grace Murray’s prose navigates the desperation of loneliness and selfhood with exquisite depth, rendering even the quietest moments astonishing and haunting
Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
‘Fantastically engaging, the kind of interior voice that ensnares you … Brilliantly and satisfyingly off-key and absurd, with a vein of tragedy running through it, it’s the art college campus novel I’ve always wanted. Grace is such an astute observer of people (especially artists) and a sharp, bright and hilarious writer. I can’t wait to see what she goes on to write next. She’s one of those writers who you can devote yourself to. I’m along for the ride of her whole career’
CLAIRE KOHDA, author of Woman, Eating
Slick with spite, desire and intrigue, this is an exceptional debut. Charlotte is audacious and addictive. You'll race through it, breath held, skin prickling
Celia Silvani, author of Baby Teeth
One of the best debuts I’ve read this year ... I read the whole thing in one sitting, so enmeshed in Charlotte’s life and lies that I simply couldn’t leave her. A character eliciting the level of frustration and sympathy that Charlotte does in a reader is a mark of truly impressive writing. The middle act, set in Italy, floored me. Murray’s writing moves between a New York campus, a terraced house in Lichfield and a workaway trip in Italy with the ease of a writer unencumbered – each setting, each relationship, and each conversation felt real, as if they were being recounted to the reader from memory. Grace Murray is a writer to watch
Jodie Matthews, author of Meet Me At The Surface
A campus novel painted with the most startling, profound hues. A portrait of queer love, loneliness and dark lies, Blank Canvas has a sharp, striking wit that cuts at the heart of what it means to be human ... An absolute triumph of a novel
Rupert Dastur, author of Cloudless
The sharpest, meanest of prose in the best possible way. An outstanding debut from author to watch
Heather Darwent, author of The Things We Do To Our Friends
Blank Canvas is a perceptive, witty and subversive exploration of honesty, relationships and identity. Grace Murray writes with such clarity and boldness achieving a refreshing, nuanced take on the campus novel
Ela Lee, author of Jaded
I loved this brilliant debut, compelled by the spiky interiority of Charlotte, and her minute, cold observations of the world she disdains yet longs to join. This novel is astute and absorbing, whether in upstate New York, a riverbank in Italy, or Lichfield, at all times asking and answering the question: how far would you go to stop being lonely? Comic and acerbic, with moments of real warmth and sorrow, we are drawn into Charlotte's warped, misanthropic worldview and the tentative relationships she forms, and are eager to stay. I was enthralled; Grace Murray is one to watch
Emma van Straaten, author of This Immaculate Body

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