The Tidal Year author Freya Bromley discusses her sparkling debut novel A Real Piece of Work, a nuanced study of grief, secrets and storytelling within one fractured family.

7:00pm-9:00pm Fort Road Bar

The first work of fiction from Freya Bromley, A Real Piece of Work is a witty, philosophical portrait of a complicated family, an exploration of who gets to tell the story of those who are gone, and those left behind. Main character Nola has written a hit memoir about her late sister Darina, celebrated by critics but not by her secretive, messy family, who all have notes... and not positive ones. When someone makes an anonymous complaint to Nola's publisher about the book, she suspects one of her relatives may be responsible. As Nola, her parents and siblings prepare to to spend the fifth anniversary of Darina’s death together on a remote island of Lundy, Nola knows this is her chance to discover who's behind the complaint and confront them, before her reputation as a literary darling is damaged for good.

A writer whose work explores love, loss and the restorative power of nature, Freya Bromley released her Margate-featuring memoir The Tidal Year, a meditation on the healing power of wild swimming, in 2023. She also hosts a new podcast called Character Study. She'll be discussing  A Real Piece of Work in conversation with fellow author and journalist Lucas Oakeley, whose debut novel Nearly Departed, a love story about grief, ghosts and second chances, came out last year.