A Sense of Occasion: A Novel

"Assured, perfectly paced, sexy and intelligent. . . I read it in a day; it was difficult to stop." —Merve Emre

“A wonderful book, at once shrewd and ethereal." —Chris Kraus

An electric, stylish—and very British—novel exploring the tensions and transgressions of relationships and sex, as one dysfunctional family gathers for a funeral

After Mary’s sudden death, a fractured family reunites in a small English village for a funeral over a hot summer weekend.

Patch is clearly overwhelmed by hosting a wake for her mother in her childhood home but is trying to muddle through, starting with the menu. Robin wants to support, but instead of assuming the role of responsible father, he heads to his former haunt: the lay-by where he used to meet farmers for sex.

Meanwhile, Jude is on her way from Naples, worrying less about her estranged cousin Patch and more about whether there’s a medicinal bag of cocaine in the trunk of her rental car. She hasn’t told the family she’s en route.

Thrown together in Mary’s tiny home, each member of the family is trying to feel something: to atone, to punish, to be better. But they rarely have one another’s best interests at heart, and as the connection between them twists and contorts, they lose sight of the rules and grasp toward anything that might make it all less painful.

Darkly funny, astute, and highly entertaining, A Sense of Occasion subverts and perverts expectations to explore the dysfunctional nature of family, relationships and sex, and the fractious desires that simmer beneath.