Only Here, Only Now

A funny, truthful, heartbreaking yet hopeful read

Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

An uncompromising story, finely told, with a feisty, urgent heart at its centre. I read in awe of Cora's resilience, while prickling with unease that anyone should have to find it in such measure

Florence Knapp, author of The Names

Tom Newland's Only Here, Only Now is a piercing howl of a novel, sharp, elegant and humane. I loved it

Karl Geary, author of Juno Loves Legs

A breathtaking debut from an exciting new storytelling talent. Wise, funny, tragic and hopeful.Cora and her world are heart-rendingly authentic

Christopher Brookmyre, author of Quite Ugly One Morning

An astonishing debut, full of grit, humour and truth. I defy you not to fall in love with Cora Mowat

Katherine May, author of Wintering

I loved Only Here, Only Now. Tender, achingly funny and full of truth

Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures

Only Here, Only Now is one of the best debuts I've read in years. Cora Mowat is an iconic heroine, growing up against the odds; she's a feisty, Impulse-drenched, Lilt-blooded smasher of a main character and Tom Newland's prose is fierce and tender, taking us straight to the thudding heart of Cora's chaotic life. A wonderful, gut-wrenching, heart-soaring novel

Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

In a tremendous act of empathy, in his debut novel Tom Newlands describes both an abandoned, neglected landscape - the small Scottish seaside town of Muircross after the collapse of the mining industry - and what it is like to be inside the mind of a young girl, Cora Mowat, who has undiagnosed ADHD. By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, this is a story of survival against grim odds, superbly spun by a narrator grappling to get to grips with both herself and the incomprehensible world around her. Cora Mowat is my kind of weirdo

Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo, Bad Penny Blues

A beautiful novel, written with grace, clarity and tenderness. Newlands conveys the generational inheritance of our political past and present with subtlety

Scotsman

A coming-of-age novel that takes the reader inside the brilliant, fizzing mind of a teenage girl with ADHD growing up in post-industrial Scotland. Funny and fierce

BBC Culture

Heartbreaking and hilarious . . . the story of a Scottish girl with undiagnosed ADHD, trying to make sense of the world

Daily Express

Think Shuggie Bain. Think Trainspotting. Think The Cutting Room. You can add Tom Newlands to that list. Only Here, Only Now is the Scottish writer's debut novel and it's a brammer . . . A vivid, synesthetic piece of writing . . . What's thrilling is that the book goes in the directions you are not expecting. And at its heart there is the unmistakeable voice of this flawed, messy, anxious, kind of heroic teenage girl. The Scottish book of the summer

Herald

Rich and vivid . . . Tom Newlands may make several prize lists for his stunning debut, a portrait of a teenager with undiagnosed ADHD in a working-class, post-industrial community in Scotland . . . Newlands's impulsive, bold protagonist, who dreams big despite having very little, is richly layered . . . This sprawling coming-of-age tale explores poverty, belonging, grief and rage, and Newlands writes with such energy that his book, though bleak, is hard to put down . . . But what impresses most is the author's compassion for his flawed characters. There's humour as well as love, hope and resilience in this accomplished novel

Observer