Expectation

A fierce emotional contemporary novel about what it takes to lead a meaningful life. Cate, Hannah and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, desire and revelry - and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends. Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life? This is a story of the highs and lows of friendship - how it can dip, dive and rise again. It is also about muddling through: as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a rebel. Most of all, it explores that liminal space between expectation and reality, the place - full of terrible pain and wondrous joy - in which we all live our lives.