WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE

An imaginative, mysterious modern fairytale from the Women's Prize-shortlisted author of Unsettled Ground

1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change.

Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared.

Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.

'Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue' The Times

'Bewitching . . . a rivetingly dark tale' Sunday Express

'Extraordinary . . . From the opening sentence it is gripping' Sunday Times

Peggy is eight years old when her survivalist father takes her to live in a cabin in a remote European forest. There, he tells her that her mother and the rest of the world are gone.


About the Author
Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. Swimming Lessons is her second novel. Her first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.

Reviews
Extraordinary...From the opening sentence it is gripping...Fuller writes with a singing simplicity that finds beauty amid the terror...might well have you crying out for more. * The Sunday Times *
Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue. * The Times *
Bewitching...a rivetingly dark tale...spellbinding. * Sunday Express *
Fuller's twisted tale is compulsive, treading the fine line between charming and sinister. With its disturbing twist, Our Endless Numbered Days could well become a classic. * Stylist, 'Book Wars' *
Rewardingly unsettling...as warped and sinister as any Brothers Grimm fairytale, this tautly written, tense novel is brilliant at evoking both the bewitching beauty of its setting - and its inherent dangers...haunting, suspenseful and deftly written...memorably chilling. * Metro *
Straightaway I was intrigued to find out where this novel was heading... Fuller evokes the natural world's beauty and brutality. * The Independent *
A debut novel that brings to mind such unlikely bedfellows as Thoreau's Walden and Emma Donoghue's Room...gripping. * Guardian *
I tore through it, found it utterly gripping and loved its hypnotic atmosphere. The beauty and pleasures of the natural world pitted against the unravelling horrors of isolation and insanity worked brilliantly. * Esther Freud *
A remarkable first novel, I was much impressed by the conviction of the child's eye view, the vivid climate and the power of the narrative. * Penelope Lively *
Our Endless Numbered Days is suspenseful, utterly riveting, and as dark as midnight in the forest. * Rebecca Hunt (author of Everland and Mr Chartwell) *
Excellent...I loved the combination of Peggy/Punzel's absolutely authentic child's precision for detail and her day-to-day matter-of-factness (often very funny) with the strangeness of the world she inhabited...very powerfully imagined... absolutely compelling. * Morag Joss (author of The Night Following) *
Narrated with warmth and compassion, Our Endless Numbered Days is a haunting and beautiful novel. I loved every page. * Daniel Clay (author of Broken) *


Awards
Winner of Desmond Elliott Prize 2015.



Book Information
ISBN 9780241003947
Author Claire Fuller
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 213g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 18mm