Blank Canvas

byGrace Murray

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If I ever woke up with an ungodly dread — that I could change it all now, turn around, and confess — I ignored it. I had never been good, and there was no point in trying now.

On a small liberal arts campus in upstate New York, Charlotte begins her final year with a lie. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden.

Charlotte had never been close with her classmates but as she repeats her tale, their expressions soften into kindness. And so she learns there are things worth lying for: attention, affection, and, as she embarks on a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. All she needs to do is keep control of the threads that hold her lie – and her life – together.

But six thousand miles away, alone in the grey two-up-two-down Staffordshire terrace she grew up in, her father is very much alive, watching television and drinking beer. Charlotte has always kept difficult truths at arm’s length, but his resolve to visit his distant daughter might just be the one thing she can’t control.

‘Fantastically engaging, the kind of interior voice that ensnares you … Brilliantly and satisfyingly off-key and absurd, with a vein of tragedy running through it, it’s the art college campus novel I’ve always wanted. Grace is such an astute observer of people (especially artists) and a sharp, bright and hilarious writer. I can’t wait to see what she goes on to write next. She’s one of those writers who you can devote yourself to. I’m along for the ride of her whole career’

CLAIRE KOHDA, author of Woman, Eating

About Grace Murray

Grace Murray is twenty-one and grew up in Norwich. She is a final year student reading English Literature at Edinburgh University, where she finds time to write between her studies and two part-time jobs.
In writing Blank Canvas, Grace set out to explore themes of Catholic guilt and queer identity, clashing moral codes and lies, and the opportunity for reinvention presented by moving between countries and settings.
Blank Canvas was written over the course of a year as part of WriteNow, Penguin Random House’s flagship mentorship scheme for emerging talent. Grace Murray won one of nine places on the scheme on the exceptional strength of her writing, selected from a pool of over 1,300 applicants.
Details
  • Imprint: Fig Tree
  • ISBN: 9780241767306
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Price: £14.99
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