Daisy Lafarge

This September, we will be joined in the bookshop by the brilliant Daisy Lafarge, author of the critically acclaimed poetry book Life Without Air, for her debut novel Paul.

Frances is a graduate student spending a summer volunteering in rural France, in the hope that tending vegetables and harvesting honey will distract her from a scandal that drove her out of Paris, her research unfinished and her sense of self unmoored. At the eco-farm Noa Noa, she comes under the influence of its charismatic and domineering owner, Paul. As his hold over her tightens and her plans come unstuck, she finds herself entangled in a strange, uneven relationship. On a fraught road trip across the South of France, both are forced to reckon with uncomfortable truths.

A compelling and perturbing story of power, passivity and the cage of being ‘good’, Paul introduces a novelist of extraordinary perspicacity and lyricism.

Life Without Air was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2020. Daisy has published two pamphlets of poetry, understudies for air (Sad Press, 2017) and capriccio (Spam Press, 2019), and her visual work has been exhibited in galleries such as Tate St Ives and Talbot Rice Gallery. She has received an Eric Gregory Award and was runner-up in the 2018 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. She won a Betty Trask Award for her debut Paul. This is a great opportunity to hear from one of the most exciting contemporary writers of today.