The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley – Booker Prize Finalist 2026

From the acclaimed author of My Phantoms and First Love comes a droll and quietly evocative novel about work, friendship, family, and the muddled, meandering path toward finding one’s place in life.

Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds—long evenings huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, sharing office gossip, reflecting on their teenage passions, and lamenting the state of the world.

Lately, though, Putnam has been harder to reach. He’s lost his father, and the magazine he’s dedicated his life to has been hijacked by an insufferable new editor, Simon “Shove” Halfpenny.

Laura has her own troubles. Living in London—a beautiful but indifferent city—with a prickly mother to manage and a tricky past to contemplate, she finds that ordinary days present their own quiet difficulties. And as Putnam slides toward despondency, she must try to pull him back.

This is a novel of enduring friendships and small mercies, delivered with Gwendoline Riley’s trademark keen observation and razor-sharp wit. It leaves you with something rare and lovely: a sense of possibility.

A perfect companion for a grey afternoon in the cove, when the fog rolls in off the water and there’s nowhere you’d rather be than curled up with a story that feels true.

Nestled here on our shelves in this new trade paperback edition, The Palm House is waiting for the reader who loves a book that whispers rather than shouts. Come linger a while and discover it for yourself.

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