Brilliant Blue

"Bold, beautiful and ebullient, it fizzes with life and dazzles with sheer power and intelligence" – Alison MacLeod

"Perfectly constructed, wonderfully written stories" – Suzanne Joinson

"Moving and powerful. This is such an important book." – Ed Hogan

Welcome to the infamous Duncock Estate. Nestled on the South English coast, it is a place where identity matters; where people hold down jobs and do their best. Where taboos are broken, adultery is committed, and problems can''t be wished away. But even tragedy can be tinged with fragile hopes and humour.

Brilliant Blue is a remarkable debut collection. Its characters are as rich, complex, dark and ambitious as any you will find in fiction. Let Karen Stevens lead you into areas where few writers dare to tread.

A remarkable debut, as rich, complex, dark and ambitious as any you will find in fiction. For readers of The Rabbit Hutch. "Bold, beautiful and ebullient, it fizzes with life and dazzles with sheer power and intelligence. I don't think I've ever read a writer whose eye is more acute." – Alison MacLeod"Moving and powerful. This is such an important book." – Ed HoganKaren Stevens' stunning debut reveals the intimate struggles of families on the margins of contemporary Britain. Set primarily on the fictional Duncock Estate, a housing project on the south coast of England, these interconnected stories expose the human cost of economic precarity, following characters navigating mental illness, housing instability, immigration tensions, and generational trauma. Stevens writes with unflinching honesty and deep compassion, illuminating lives often rendered invisible in contemporary literature. From a Polish immigrant attacked while helping a neighbor, to a teenage mother keeping vigil over a dying stranger, to a university student struggling to reconcile education with working-class roots, Stevens' characters resist easy categorization. They are flawed, fierce, funny, and utterly human.

• | Author: Karen Stevens
• | Publisher: Barbican Press
• | Publication Date: Jun 19, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781917352055
• | ISBN-10: 1917352050