{"product_id":"beginning-middle-end-9780008804800","title":"Beginning Middle End","description":"\u003cp\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Mind-expanding and heart-expanding; A summer book for life’ ALI SMITH\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An instant classic’ SERVICE95\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A stunning shape-shifting marvel’ MAX PORTER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the award-winning author of Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli, comes a wondrous new novel about family, love and starting over.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll I had to do, or so I thought, was to answer a simple question: How do I reinvent it, the story, our lives?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA mother and a daughter take off on a road trip after the collapse of a marriage. Their journey begins in Sicily during a summer of rapidly-changing winds, volcanic rumbles and sudden tempests. How do you begin again, the mother wonders, if you got the beginning wrong? The trip soon becomes a quest for origins – not just through their family history, but also further back to a mythical and even geological past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith her daughter leaving childhood behind and her mother beginning to show signs of dementia, the narrator finds herself at a crossroads. She must now ask herself: How do we situate ourselves deeply in the world while accepting our transience in it? How are a family's memories made and what happens when they disappear?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA road novel, a mother-daughter story, a radical portrait of starting over, in all its forms, Beginning Middle End offers an exhilarating testament to the power of the stories and the loves we hold most dear.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA hottest book of the summer as seen in New York Times, Guardian, Vogue, Elle, AnOther, New Yorker, Glossary, Town \u0026amp; Country and more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘What sets Valeria Luiselli’s new novel apart is its clarity, its immediacy, its vividness’ COLM TÓIBÍN, author of Long Island\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An affecting novel for anyone … seeking their own new beginning’ FINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A beautiful, maybe perfect novel’ TOMMY ORANGE, author of Wandering Stars\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Dazzles on every page’ KATIE KITAMURA, author of Audition\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Astonishing … a lightning bolt of a book’ DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA, author of Said the Dead\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Beautiful, funny and tender … I loved it’ EMMA HEALY, author of Sweat\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Among the best books to read on holiday … beautiful’THEGLOSSARY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The kind of novel you wish would never come to an end’SPECTATOR\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘One of the country's most gifted novelists’ LA TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Rich, lyrical and moving’ ANOTHER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat readers are saying ★★★★★:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Just about as perfect as fiction comes’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Intoxicating … the perfect summer read for someone looking for a book to get lost in’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Absolutely magnificent’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Literary fiction at its finest’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor: Valeria Luiselli\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch4\u003eModern \u0026amp; contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction: special features\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003ch5\u003ePublished on 30 Jul 2026 by HarperCollins Publishers.\u003c\/h5\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHardback\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Valeria Luiselli","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57320858124666,"sku":"9780008804800","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0373\/4125\/files\/9780008804800.jpg?v=1790664336","url":"https:\/\/belfastbooks.co.uk\/products\/beginning-middle-end-9780008804800","provider":"Belfast Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}