The next book to be featured this season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club is The Wreck by Lizzy Stewart—a glorious genre-defying illustrated novel about the messy tangle of love, envy and desire that underpins our most precious relationships, and the difficult paths we must take to discover our true selves.
The book was released on 9 April and Lizzy’s interview with Sara is on BBC Sounds from Tuesday 5 May.
Read an exclusive extract.
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The Wreck
Charlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid 1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart.
When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community.
At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing each of them in a new light.
About the author
Lizzy Stewart is an author based in London. She writes and illustrates books for both children and adults. In 2017 her picture book There’s a Tiger in the Garden won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and a World Illustration Award. Her debut full-length novel Alison was published in 2022. She teaches Illustration at Goldsmiths, University of London and has also taught courses at the Tate and on behalf of the National Gallery.
A word from Lizzy
“It is such a treat and an honour to have The Wreck chosen for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club! I’m totally delighted that the Reading Agency’s team of librarians and book lovers felt strongly enough to bring a book with pictures to the radio! A bold move and one that I am very, very grateful for. I grew up, like many children, taking piles of illustrated books out from my local library, reading the pictures as urgently and closely as I read the words. With age we move away from illustrated stories but the magic of an illustrated world doesn’t go away, we just stop seeking it out! I hope that The Wreck might bring some readers back to the richness of text and image, how deliciously immersive it can be. I’m so pleased that the BBC Radio 2 Book Club might help this book, which is about friendship, confidence, class and a beautiful country house, to a much wider audience than I ever could have hoped for!”
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