SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2026

'EXTREMELY SMART, IMPOSSIBLY FUNNY, AND JUST PLAIN FUN TO READ' CARO CLAIRE BURKE, AUTHOR OF YESTERYEAR

'A VOICE LIKE NO OTHER' LENA DUNHAM

Think your family is dysfunctional? Meet the Flynns.

For the three Flynn daughters, it's been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed 'War Crimes Wes'. Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist. And the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to a wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone - or something - is monitoring the town's citizens.

Casting a shadow across their lives is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster's machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy - one that may just, finally, bring them closer together.

The instant Sunday Times bestseller

'THE MOST WILDLY ORIGINAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' HARPER'S BAZAAR

'THE DEBUT NOVEL FOR 2026 THAT HAS UNDOUBTEDLY BEEN THE MOST SHOUTED ABOUT' THE SUNDAY TIMES STYLE

'A DARKLY FUNNY FAMILY SAGA' BUSTLE

'AN INSTANT CLASSIC' SHORTLIST

Readers love LOST LAMBS
'What a ROMP!'
'The hype is real!'
'Hilarious, weird, original and addictive!'
'If Wes Anderson wrote Little Women.'
'I'm shouting it from every rooftop: THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE YEAR!'
'Perhaps the funniest book I've ever read.'

Autorentext

Madeline Cash is the founder of Forever Magazine and the author of the story collection Earth Angel. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, The Baffler, The Sewanee Review, The Drift, and Bomb, among other publications. Lost Lambs is her debut novel.