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Chosen Family

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What to expect

'MADELEINE GRAY IS A DAZZLING WRITER - A HUGE TALENT' GILLIAN ANDERSON
'BEAUTIFUL, DEVASTATING, HILARIOUS AND FULL OF LIFE' JESSICA STANLEY
'ALL KINDS OF GORGEOUSNESS' JENNIE GODFREY
'GRAY WRITES SO ACUTELY ABOUT THE MESS OF DESIRE AND THE HUMAN CONDITION' NIGELLA LAWSON

Books about friendship are not often described as love stories, but this is one.


At the age of twelve, Nell has accepted that hers will likely be a friendless existence. She's not interested in boys or makeup or competing to see who can eat the least - so fitting in at her all-girls' school feels impossible.

But then, a new girl arrives at school.

Eve has short hair like a boy, a wicked sense of humour and an unshakable confidence that she will find her place in the world. The moment they meet, Nell begins to rethink the whole friendless existence thing.

As they grow into themselves, Nell and Eve will love each other and hurt each other - through the chlorine-scented savagery of adolescence; long, drunken nights in share houses and gay bars; and the highs and lows of parenthood.

And always, despite unspoken feelings and sexual confusion, they will choose each other. Again, and again. As friends, as lovers, as family.

COMING JANUARY 2026. PRE-ORDER NOW.

Critics Review

Sometimes savage, sometimes heart-warming . . . Chosen Family thrums with the vitality and connection of girlhood and female friendships
Guardian
Madeline Gray writes so acutely about the mess of desire and the human condition
Nigella Lawson
Chosen Family is all kinds of gorgeousness, filled with brilliant, complicated characters, love, sex and laughter, along with a portrait of adolescence so accurate it almost broke my heart
Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things
I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with Chosen Family. Beautiful, devastating, hilarious and full of life
Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed
Chosen Family felt like being welcomed into a world full of in-jokes, drama, comfort, chaos and love - I was completely in its thrall until the very last page. Madeleine Gray has written something very special: an epic story of female intimacy that is gripping, poignant, extremely funny and bracingly true
Lisa Owens, author of Not Working
A passionate ode to friendship that is sharp and hilarious funny, brave and utopian, sexy but not too serious about it. Most of all it felt deeply real and true
Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy
Hilarious and devastating. I was caught in the Medusa's gaze of Chosen Family. This book is everything to me
Siang Lu, author of Ghost Cities
I loved Chosen Family's capacious heart, and the vivacious kick of its language. Gray's generosity to her characters doesn't preclude a tough, comic astringency when it comes to revealing the foibles and posturing of her characters. Yet the mocking is never cruel: this is a novel that has a lot to say about the nature of love and of friendship. And just as importantly, a lot to say about the nature of desire and friendship. I started reading and couldn't stop till I reached the final page. It is joyously good
Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap
This novel is an X-ray of the savage and terrified minds of teenage girls. Even once we're moving through adulthood, do those snarling younger selves stay trapped inside somewhere? Chosen Family is about two people reaching for love despite being burned by the world and each other. Gray is pulling all the strings: funny, devastating, shocking, heartbreaking
Bri Lee, author of Seed
I inhaled this book, holding my breath at passages that felt ripped straight from my high school diary in 2007 . . . Madeleine Gray makes real the humiliation and exhilaration of teenage girlhood, and the ways it shapes the women, partners and parents we become
Lucinda Price, author of All I Ever Wanted Was to Be Hot
In Chosen Family, Madeleine Gray skilfully picks apart the ties that bind us, the ones that break and the ones that can be sewn back together. Told with Gray's inimitable wit and verve, this is a story of queer love betrayal forgiveness sex family and above all friendship, in all its gory glory. Chosen Family has it all
Dominic Amerena, author of I Want Everything
Warning: Clear your schedule for the all-consuming read that is Madeleine Gray's second novel, Chosen Family . . . An epic and thought-provoking tale about growing up and finding your people
Books+Publishing

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