Author of the Booker-longlisted novel Second Place 'Cements her reputation as one of the most fierce and elegant chroniclers of how we live now.' Stephanie Merritt; Observer Coventry is a collection of essays about choices; womanhood and art. Encompassing memoir and cultural and literary criticism; with pieces on gender; politics and writers such as D. H. Lawrence; Olivia Manning and Natalia Ginzburg; it is essential reading for our age: fearless; unrepentantly erudite; both startling and rewarding to behold.