A Real Piece of Work

A Real Piece of Work has all the hallmarks of my favourite kind of novel: introspective, funny, philosophical, and bringing the outside world in. I love Freya Bromley’s writing and her gift for capturing emotions and ideas that so often feel impossible to pin down – Emma Gannon
A tender and intricate novel. Bromley writes grief with unflinching clarity, charting its quiet tremors through family life. It’s like looking at a family portrait through the shards of a broken frame – William Rayfet Hunter
A Real Piece of Work is a kaleidoscopic look at all the different shapes of love and longing. Bromley astutely observes the way grief can shape desires: for a relationship, for a career, for a fresh start. A strong debut voice promising wit and wisdom – Sarvat Hasin
The isolated island [of Lundy] is the perfect setting for a performance in moral inquiry. – Jade Angeles Fitton
A heartfelt, nuanced debut novel which adroitly balances the tension of opposites: both mordantly funny and radiantly joyful, snarky and earnestly tender – how does a complex family keep going after grief? What are the boundaries between art and lies, being a bystander or an active participant in your own life? I so admired and enjoyed how this novel doesn’t shy away from unlikeable feelings or thorny question, it has the texture of real life and the universality of good fiction. A REAL PIECE OF WORK candidly interrogates these big questions and is also a sparkling ode to London, sisterhood and finding the sublime in the everyday. – Sharlene Teo
No one else captures the nuances and undercurrents of grief like this. A Real Piece of Work is funny and wise while its honesty about human nature smacks like a shock of cold water. Above all, I was impressed by its profound questioning about who gets to tell our stories, who has the right to tell them and, ultimately, how we reconcile these competing versions of truth with those we love. – Michael Amherst, author of THE BOYHOOD OF CAIN

Freya Bromley is a writer living in London. Her memoir The Tidal Year was published by Coronet in 2023 and was shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards. She has written for titles including Conde Nast Traveller, Financial Times and National Geographic Traveller.

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