Practice

£9.99

Six o’clock in the morning, Sunday, at the worn-out end of January. In a small room in an Oxford college, cold and dim and full of quiet, an undergraduate student works on an essay about Shakespeare’s sonnets. Annabel has a meticulously planned routine for her day – work, yoga, meditation, long walks; no apples after meals, no coffee on an empty stomach – but finds it repeatedly thrown off course. Exquisitely crafted, wryly comic and completely original, ‘Practice’ is a novel about the life of the mind and the life of the body, about the repercussions of a rigid routine and the deep pleasures of literature.

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SKU: 9781399614559 Category: Tags: , , Publisher/imprint : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page count : 208
Published on 14th August, 2025

Description

‘A strange and shimmering joy’ Jon McGregor
‘Entrancing’ TLS
‘A lot of fun’ Helen Oyeyemi

In a small room in an Oxford college, at the worn-out end of January, Annabel works on an essay about Shakespeare.

She has a carefully considered plan for her day, but as the essay’s deadline looms, so too does the urge to procrastinate and the insistent presence of other people.

Elaborate erotic fantasies, telephone calls from her boyfriend, family and friends who demand her attention, and darker crises, obliquely glimpsed – all these distractions threaten to disturb the much-cherished quiet in Annabel’s mind.

‘Exquisite’ Mark Haddon
‘Wonderful’ Guardian
‘Fascinating’ Olivia Laing

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Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 cm
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