The Start of Something

A COSMOPOLITAN BEST BOOK PICK FOR 2024!

'Bold, playful, generous and lush, it's a story that feels both timeless and urgent - I loved it. Gorgeously and relentlessly queer!' DAISY BUCHANAN

A lover. A bartender. A husband. An artist. A student.

A poet. A sex worker. A welder. A drag queen. A mother.

As the sun sets over the city streets, ten ordinary lives collide with extraordinary consequences.

From thrilling first meetings and impulsive liaisons, to messy misunderstandings and passionate reconciliations, each connection has the potential to be the start of something, or already hints at its own ending.

Yet uniting them all is the desire to find true intimacy in a fractured modern world - to see, and to truly be seen...

A razor-sharp, intoxicating and thought-provoking novel of ten interlocking sexual encounters that will appeal to fans of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, and 'Modern Love' from the New York Times.

Praise for The Start of Something:

'A fun, big-hearted and at times thought-provoking read about the search for connection in an all-too-busy, atomised world' MARIE CLAIRE

'Effortlessly fluid. Moving and suprising' LILY LINDON

'Ten lives collide, and each encounter unspools in its messy, vulnerable, thrilling glory. Electrifying' MARIANNE LEVY

'Williams skillfully explores connections, complications and 'situationships' in all of their messy glory' GRAZIA

'An insightful, hopeful and cleverly constructed novel about sexuality, identity and friendship. Written with humour and huge compassion. Brilliant' ANNA MAZZOLA

'Brilliantly clever. Surprising and hopeful' ANOUSHKA WARDEN

Holly Williams was born and grew up in Mid Wales, and now lives in Sheffield. After six years as a staff writer at the Independent, she became a freelance journalist - reviewing books and theatre, and writing and editing for the arts pages for many publications including the Observer, the New York Times, Time Out, the TLS and the Financial Times. In 2020 she received funding from Arts Council England to complete What Time is Love?, her first novel. The Start of Something is her second novel.

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