A Perfect Explanation

Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize 2019

Longlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize 2019

Observer: Fiction to look out for in 2019

The i Paper’s 30 of the best new debut novels to read in 2019

Scottish Review of Books: 2019 in Prospect

As featured on BBC Woman’s Hour, Sky Sunrise and London Live

‘Filled with cerebral intensity and scintillating dialogue’ —The Desmond Elliott Prize

Exploring themes of ownership and abandonment, Eleanor Anstruther’s bestselling debut is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell (1892–1964), granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll.

Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood. Here, in the pages of this extraordinary book where the unspoken is conveyed with vivid simplicity, lies a story that will leave you reeling.