The Optimists

? Out now: The Land in Winter, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 ?

The Optimists: in a world full of suffering, how can we have faith in humanity, or the future?
'Exceptional'
Sunday Times

'Powerful and lively'
Financial Times

'A delight'
Time Out

Clem Glass, a photojournalist, returns from Africa to London convinced there is no hope for mankind.

Yet after his sister falls ill and he takes her back to the West Country of their childhood, he cannot ignore the decency and kindness he encounters, or the pulse of goodness in his own heart.

When news comes offering Clem the chance to confront the author of his nightmares, he must choose what sort of man to be.


Praise for Andrew Miller
'Andrew Miller's writing is a source of wonder and delight' Hilary Mantel

'One of our most skilful chroniclers of the human heart and mind' Sunday Times

'One of the best writers at work today' Telegraph

'A wonderful storyteller' Spectator

'One of those rare novelists who can rock up in any time and place and convincingly inhabit that particular historical moment' The Times