Creatures of a Brief Season - preorders

Creatures of a Brief Season - preorders
by Clare Owen

A beautifully written gentle novel about intimacy born of necessity, and what it means to rethink your life when the one you’d imagined hasn’t gone to plan.

Leonard is elderly, overweight, and battling with failing eyesight - the last thing he needs is a stranger moving in.

A decade spent caring for her mother Vanessa has been left homeless and struggling to find work - caring for Leonard is her only option.

As the lives of two very different people intertwine, something wonderful happens - assumptions begin to shift, boundaries between obligation and companionship grow less certain and a friendship flourishes.

Written as a dual narrative, the unflinching look at the challenges of old age seen through the eyes of a complex, often cantankerous protagonist, is comparable to Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge; in putting a carer and her attempts to carve out space for herself centre stage as well, the novel is also akin to the international prize winning When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén.

Paperback
Language: English
published by Hermitage Press
Due for publication in August 2026