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  • Published: 17 January 2023
  • ISBN: 9780241548523
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $37.00

Amazing Grace Adams

The New York Times Bestseller and Read With Jenna Book Club Pick




Grace Adams is one bad day away from saving her life

One hot summer day, stuck in traffic on her way to pick up the cake for her daughter's sixteenth birthday party, Grace Adams snaps.

She doesn't scream or break something or cry or curl into a ball. She simply abandons her car in traffic and walks away. But not from her life - towards it. Towards the daughter who has banned her from the party. Towards the husband divorcing her. Towards the terrible thing that has blown their family apart . . .

She'll show her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up. Because Grace Adams was amazing. The world and her family might have forgotten. But Grace is about to remind them ...

  • Published: 17 January 2023
  • ISBN: 9780241548523
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $37.00

About the author

Fran Littlewood

Fran Littlewood has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London. She was taught by Andrew Motion and passed with distinction. Before that she worked as a journalist, including a stint at The Times. She lives in north London with her husband and their three girls. AMAZING GRACE ADAMS is her debut novel.

Praise for Amazing Grace Adams

I just adored this beautiful debut novel! Funny, moving and at times absolutely heart-breaking, it had me captivated until the very last page. An unforgettable read

Liane Moriarty

An exacting and brilliantly structured novel about love, grief, hope lost and then found again. I rooted for Grace from the first sentence

Mary Beth Keane, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Ask Again, Yes</i>

Fran Littlewood has written a magnificent novel. Grace Adams is everywoman-filled with promise, trepidatious in love and eventually, a besotted mother. Amazing Grace Adams is a fully realized story of catastrophe and joy, grief and love, and the hidden chambers of the human heart that carry the best and worst of our experience. A stunning debut

Adriana Trigiani, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Good Left Undone</i>

From the first hot minute when Grace Adams, stalled in traffic, stuck in her car, simply opens the door and walks away from it all-into her day, the single day that gathers all her days up to this tipping point at the middle, she had me. How Life in the middle of our lives breaks us open-and apart-and then open again. I finished her story on a plane above the country, so full, and in tears. "Ma'am?" my seat-mate asked, "are you ok?" "Oh, yes," I answered. And gave him this book'

Sarah Blake, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Postmistress</i> and <i>The Guest Book</i>

I can't remember the last time I read a novel with such unbridled enthusiasm. Amazing Grace Adams is a raw, uproariously hilarious portrait of parenthood, love, and family; it's also a profound examination of the way language can both save us and fail us when we need it the most. I'd walk across London on the hottest day of the year with Fran Littlewood-hell, I'd walk anywhere with her. I'm begging you: read this book

Grant Ginder, author of <i>The People We Hate at the Wedding</i>

I loved it. Vivid, visceral and incredibly emotional. I laughed and sobbed

Tim Minchin

I laughed, I cried ugly tears, I rooted for Grace Adams. It broke my heart then reassembled it - as only a fabulous novel can

Emily Koch, author of <i>Keep Him Close</i>

An incredible debut. Grace Adams is fighting back and her story is both powerful and heartbreaking. I recommend.

Julie Owen Moylan, author of <i>That Green Eyed Girl</i>

Hugely enjoyable. Compelling, funny and poignant. I devoured it

Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

All hail Fran Littlewood and the truly amazing Grace Adams

Sam Baker

Women in their 40s everywhere will be wondering 'how did she get into our heads?' Funny and moving

The Midulthood

Full of depth and honesty

Prima

Rarely have I felt more seen than by this book

Good Housekeeping

This is a redemptive narrative, conveying the complex midlife crisis, with humour and hope

Take a Break 'Book Club'

An absolute gut punch of a book that throbs with all the rage of a middle-aged woman who refuses to go quietly

Red

Grace and her family feel brilliantly, dramatically real and believable, and she becomes a heroine to take to heart

Apple Books

Brilliant . . . a story of a midlife heroine seeking redemption and so much more

Woman & Home, Book of the Month

Hugely accomplished. You'll laugh, cry and nod in recognition. Properly amazing

Sun

A redemptive story of womanhood, motherhood and marriage. You won't forget Grace Adams in a hurry

Culturefly

Honest and relatable

Sun 'Pick of the Week'

A tragicomic character that middle-aged women can celebrate . . . It's a tale of giddy love, thwarted ambitions, devastating loss, the dangers of 21st-century adolescence, the horrors of the menopause and how badly language can let us down . . . Littlewood writes with ferocity and compassion about Grace's all-too-believable agonies and the impossibility of spinning all the plates that modern life expects us to manage. Read it and weep (then cheer)

THE TIMES

An uplifting tour de force with a heartfelt message that will make you laugh and cry. It's the perfect January read. In her amazing Grace, Fran Littlewood has created an unforgettable heroine

Irish Independent

Explores motherhood with wit, warmth and wisdom. Extraordinary

Grazia BOOK CLUB

Readers will relish the letting loose of one woman's long-suppressed righteous rage . . . Spectacular

Mail on Sunday

A surefire literary hit . . . destined to be a Hot for 2023 phenomenon

Hot Press

Family dynamics are well observed in a Falling Down-inspired tale of a mother's menopausal rage. Grace Adams is certainly a fighter

Guardian

Hotly anticipated

Hello!

Amazing Grace Adams takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of female rage, loss and resilience. A rip-roaring, empowering story of redemption, discovery and starting over. And the more emotional moments are peppered with so much humour, you find yourself laughing and crying at the same sentence. Amazing Grace Adams is a glorious tragicomedy. The characters are wonderfully drawn and you'll applaud Grace for her amazing fortitude, compassion and warmth. Littlewood flips the stereotypes of menopause and middle age into something women can aspire to

Daily Express

We promise you'll rage, cry and laugh

Sunday Post

The 10 Best Feel Good Books of 2023

Washington Post

An exhilarating roar of rage, loss and redemption

Daily Mail

Discover more

Article
Amazing Grace Adams Book Club Questions

A fierce, funny and utterly captivating book to read with your book club.

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Real readers review: Amazing Grace Adams

What do NZ fans really think of Fran Littlewood's debut novel?

Video
Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood

Grace Adams is one bad day away from saving her life. Buy your copy here: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/amazing-grace-adams-9780241548523