Heligoland

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE AND COSTA BOOK AWARDSAt her first sight of the Nautilus, it was as if the lustre of the building filled her heart and ran through her veins. Stranded in suburban London, the Nautilus is an eccentric Modernist house built as a haven for bohemian artists, intellectuals and refugees. Now the Nautilus is past its heyday, its residents few and ageing: Celeste, a hippie architect-turned-activist; Francis, a poet of a bygone era; and bric-a-brac dealer Gus Crabb. And then comes Rowena Snow. She has always been an outsider: an Indian orphan raised in Scotland, a lover of poetry shut out of intellectual circles. Rowena turns up at the Nautilus' door, anxious but curious, like a hermit crab seeking a home - searching for her own utopia. 'Elegant, elusive . . . The writing is superb' GUARDIAN'A national treasure . . . She has achieved that rarest of things for a writer' DAILY TELEGRAPH'Tender, funny and wonderfully realised' SUNDAY EXPRESS