‘I wanted to pass it on to all my friends’ SHEILA HETI

'Remarkable clarity and humour' VOGUE

‘Disarmingly sweet’ NICOLA DINAN

'Had me hopelessly charmed' AMY KEY

‘A fever dream' SHARLENE TEO

'Impossible to put down’ LISA OWENS

A most anticipated book of 2025 in Vogue, Our Culture, The Bookseller and Publishers Weekly

A hilarious and utterly original debut novel following a woman trying to make sense of her life and herself as she falls in love with her therapist.

Sylvie is only happy when she is at therapy. This is because Sylvie is in love with her therapist. She wants to kiss her and roll around on the floor with her. She thinks about her every second they’re not together (roughly 167 hours and 10 minutes per week). She’s aware she has an obsession, but whether it is – as her therapist suggests – a case of extreme ‘erotic transference’, or a lost person’s need to connect, Sylvie isn’t sure.

Beyond therapy, Sylvie has what she considers to be a small life: a job as a veterinary nurse, her little brain-damaged dog, Curtains, and a new friend Chloe who she met on the beach. When the therapist delivers some devastating news, Sylvie has to imagine new and lasting ways of coping (that don’t include being adopted by the therapist). Her world has begun to open up, inching beyond the fear that has confined her until now, and she must decide whether she’s ready for a bravery of feeling.

In this stunning debut novel, Adelaide Faith encapsulates the great vulnerability, difficulty and joy of being alive.

'There is so much rare humour and insight and sweetness and humanity … and a true and ringing voice' Sheila Heti, author of Pure Colour

'Witty and irreverent … Readers will fall in love' Publishers Weekly

'A jaw-dropping, exhilarating, completely original high-wire act' Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed

‘A fever dream … for fans of Convenience Store Woman and Pond’ Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

‘Surprising and funny … poignant and philosophical … a book I won't soon forget’ Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else