Maria in the Moon

A devastating flood reawakens a young woman's buried childhood memories … with life-changing results. A dark, warmly funny and deeply moving novel from the bestselling author of How To Be Brave and The Lion Tamer Who Lost.

***LoveReading Book of the Year***

***Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize***

'Part psychological thriller, part love story and fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine will love it' Red Magazine

'Storytelling at its finest, Louise Beech is a beguiling wordsmith. Prepare to be hooked' Amanda Prowse

'Beautifully constructed, laugh-out-loud funny in places, achingly sad in others, I completely fell in love' John Marrs

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'Like a cold spider, the memory stirred in my head and spun an icy web about my brain. Someone else crawled in. I remembered'

Thirty-on-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can't remember everything. She can't remember her ninth year. She can't remember when her insomnia started. And she can't remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria.


With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the devastating deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges … and changes everything.


Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defences we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide…


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'Some books seem to fly under the radar and catch you completely by surprise, which is exactly what Louise Beech's Maria in the Moon did. Brilliantly written and incredibly moving, Beech captures the nature of memory and truth with an honest poignancy' CultureFly

'Quirky, darkly comic, but always heartfelt, this original and sad story has wonderful characters and will linger long in your memory' Sunday Mirror

'A powerful and moving story' Madeleine Black

'Heartfelt and wry, this will transport you into a keenly observed world; secrets are hidden, people are flawed, but humanity endures' Ruth Dugdall