The *new* novel from the internationally bestselling author of normal people . ''the literary phenomenon of the decade.'' - guardian ''the best novel published this year.'' - the times ''quite astonishing.'' - independent ''the most enjoyable novel of the year.'' - daily telegraph ''a spellbinding twenty-first-century love story.'' - tls ***pre-order now*** alice, a novelist, meets felix, who works in a distribution warehouse, and asks him if he''d like to travel to rome with her. in dublin, her best friend eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with simon, a man she has known since childhood. alice, felix, eileen and simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. they desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. they have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?