Editions

All the Good Things

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780241978115

  • Length: 240  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 15mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 170g

  • RRP: £12.99

All the Good Things

What if you did a very bad thing... but that wasn't the end of the story?

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.

But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone - even a 100% bad person - deserve a chance to be good?

'Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and genuinely joyous' Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780241978115

  • Length: 240  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 15mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 170g

  • RRP: £12.99

Reviews

  • Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and genuinely joyous

    Francis Spufford, author of 'Golden Hill'

  • Compassionate and beautifully written

    Carys Bray, author of A Song For Issy Bradley

  • A funny and hopeful story... Clare writes with compassion and insight

    Kit de Waal, bestselling author of 'My Name is Leon'

  • I raced through this beautiful novel, which oscillates between pain and hope, anger and joy. An important novel which celebrates the fact that good things exist inside every person, no matter how ignored or hidden.

    Sarah Butler, author of 'Ten Things I've Learned About Love' and 'Before the Fire'

  • A heartbreaking, vital and seamless insight into a life that might otherwise be ignored or judged. The voice of Bethany is perfect - compelling, whip-smart and deeply affecting.

    Emma Jane Unsworth, author of 'Animals'

  • Clare Fisher's novel addresses poverty, fear, and desperation. The protagonist, Beth, must fight for every good thing in her life. She has grown up in foster care and has no friends or family to protect her when she moves London. In many ways, it is a novel about loneliness and isolation. Yet throughout there is an indomitable love. It is a book that burns with compassion, both Beth's and Fisher's. The reader is left with the desire to find whatever resources of empathy they have and to live with greater kindness.

    Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You

  • A moving, compassionate account of someone struggling hard for redemption

    Sunday Times

  • A sparky and unsettling debut

    Guardian

About the Author

Clare Fisher

Clare Sita Fisher was born in Tooting, south London in 1987. After accidentally getting obsessed with writing fiction when she should have been studying for a BA in History at the University of Oxford, Clare completed an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London. An avid observer of the diverse area of south London in which she grew up, Clare's writing is inspired by her long-standing interest in social exclusion and the particular ways in which it affects vulnerable women and girls. All The Good Things is her first novel.

Clare Fisher

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Features

5 things teaching creative writing in prisons taught me

Clare Fisher has spent years hosting creative writing workshops for women in prison. Being exposed to the social exclusion they face, it inspired her to write her first book, All The Good Things

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