Unexpected

By: Ellen Wiles

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A funny, addictive and poignant novel about what happens when the lines between friendship, romance, and family begin to blur.

Robin and Kessie have been best friends since childhood when their families fractured. Now, in their mid-thirties, they are keen to have children themselves, but each faces daunting obstacles. In stepping up to support each other, they begin to negotiate unconventional routes towards motherhood, challenging assumptions about ‘normal’ family relationships along the way.

Delving into anthropology, animal behaviour, family law, and artists and thinkers from Zora Neale Hurston to Joni Mitchell, this novel offers a fresh contribution to contemporary writing on female friendship, motherhood, and queering the nuclear family.

©2024 Ellen Wiles (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

Praise for the author

'A wonderful book – brilliantly vivid and human, and I was completely taken up by the story. The characters felt real and the depiction of the shadow world of refugees and how we regard them rang true. I'm so glad to have read it and hope it reaches many people.' Maurice Wren, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council

‘The Invisible Crowd is primarily a portrait of Britain and of what British people do when confronted with difference. It is a plea for compassion. It pushes us to find our kinder selves.’ Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You

'A compelling contemporary story that shines a light on the lives of migrants and refugees and our search for common humanity'. Sita Brahmachari, author of Artichoke Hearts

‘A fierce, big-hearted novel that celebrates the power of compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. It takes a special gift to explore an issue so urgent and so complex in such an emotionally satisfying way. Ellen Wiles has this gift.’ Joe Treasure, author of The Book of Air

‘A sensitive, affecting novel, which looks behind the headlines to explore the experience of an asylum seeker in the UK’ Francesca Rhydderch, author of The Rice Paper Diaries

'A deeply felt novel using a technique that literally 'gets behind the headlines' on asylum' Tim Finch, author of The House of Journalists

‘A brilliant novel that gives voice to those often silenced or dispossessed' Paul Burston, author of The Black Path

'I absolutely loved it. It's beautifully written, fascinating, emotional, serious, brilliant'. Gemma Seltzer, author of Speak to Strangers