Parallel Lines

A brother and sister lost and found, in a novel that seizes your heart and enthrals your mind, from the author of the Patrick Melrose series.

* The Orwell Prize Finalist 2025 *

‘We set off in opposite directions and walked around the world until we met, and I’m very pleased we have…’

It is summer. Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him with a fragile hold on reality and a hunger to connect with the mother who abandoned him. His therapist, Martin, also faces challenges, including his adopted daughter Olivia’s tenuous relationship with her biological mother. Olivia, meanwhile, is producing a radio series on natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life.

Over a year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, revealing their destinies in a new light. Parallel Lines is a novel about connection, family, love, and the cascading consequences of our choices.

PRAISE FOR EDWARD ST AUBYN:

‘Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation’
ALAN HOLLINGHURST

‘I love Edward St Aubyn’
DONNA TARTT

‘Nothing can prepare you for the rich, acerbic comedy of St Aubyn’s world’
ZADIE SMITH