In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings the charming, aristocratic young poet Cecil Valance to his family's modest home The shared intimacies of this weekend link the Sawle and Valance families irrevocably, becoming legendary events in a larger story, told and interpreted in different ways over the coming century Throughout this richly comic history of sexual mores and literary reputation we follow the two families, in a series of widely spaced episodes, through startling changes in fortune and circumstance An impeccably nuanced exploration of changing taste, class and social etiquette, The Strange's Child, written in deliciously witty and observant prose, is an enthralling novel from one of the finest writers in the English language 'With The Stranger's Child, an already remarkable talent unfurls into something spectacular' Sunday Times 'A remarkable, unmissable achievement One leaves the novel with a sense of the truly extraordinary' Independent 'Elegant, seductive and extremely enjoyable to read The Stranger's Child will no doubt be one of the best novels published this year' Guardian