Bloody Awful in Different Ways: The award-winning, internationally bestselling novel about a boy who has seven fathers in seven years

A WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2026
WINNER OF THE AUGUST PRIZE FOR FICTION

'Bloody awful? Bloody brilliant, more like' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Pure joyous storytelling on every page ... A little treasure of a book' FREDRIK BACKMAN
'A delight from start to finish' JENNIE GODFREY
'Flawless ... So sharp, so beguiling, so acutely observed' GUARDIAN

Christmas, 1983. In the aftermath of yet another furious argument, seven-year-old Andrev’s mother lets him in on a secret: his father is, in fact, not his father. And so begins a new kind of childhood, in which fathers come and go, arriving in red Volvos and sweeping his mother off her feet. Fathers can be magicians or murderers, artists or thieves, and, like growing pains, or the weather, they appear uninvited and leave without warning. Fathers are drawn to his mother like moths to a flame – but even she can’t control how they behave.

Vivid and joyful, raw and tender, Bloody Awful in Different Ways is a novel about growing up in the chaos of social change; about how love begins and ends; and above all, about men. Because after all, you learn an awful lot about this strange species when you have seven fathers in seven years.

READERS LOVE BLOODY AWFUL IN DIFFERENT WAYS

'I loved this book so much. It reminds me a bit of Demon Copperhead but if Fredrik Backman was writing it' FIVE STAR READER REVIEW

'Once every now and again comes a book that I just absorb. I have to press it into people's hands and say 'you must read this'. This is one of those books: a joyful, laugh out loud, heartbreaking and uplifting wonder' FIVE STAR READER REVIEW

'Actually bloody brilliant in different ways ... Vivid and witty and punchy and just so real' FIVE STAR READER REVIEW

'Hugely readable and often very funny ... Superb' FIVE STAR READER REVIEW

'5 joyous stars. I urge you to read this. It may just be your book of the year. It is mine' FIVE STAR READER REVIEW