High Tide

A beautiful, intelligent and transportive novel about love, co-dependency, grief and the redemption of finding your own voice. Livia writes the hot claustrophobia of first love – and the wounds it leaves behind – forensically, tenderly. * Lara Williams, author of Supper Club *
Franchini has so perfectly captured the light and taste and colour of an Italian summer in this vivid novel about youth, love, art, debauchery and consequences. * Sara Baume, multi-award-winning author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither *
As sultry as it is menacing, High Tide is a novel about desire, grief, art. It’s about the stories we tell and the stories we hide. High Tide has everything you need: sex, mystery and Mediterranean decadence. * Jarred McGinnis, author of The Coward *
A dark, tense, and compulsive novel. The Shelleys and their seedy entourage are uncannily reincarnated as palazzo-parasite, would-be YBAs on a grungy Grand Tour: the result is unputdownable. * Francesa Reese, author of Voyeur *
Art, hedonism and the nineties sweating under a menacing Italian sun: I feel intoxicated just thinking of about High Tide. Fans of Ferrante’s darker works will not be disappointed. * Charlotte Tierney, author of The Cat Bride *
Brilliant. I was completely beguiled by its woozy, boozy atmosphere; it’s as thrilling and seductive as a beach read, with a corpse washed up in it. High Tide is a complicated, disturbing and intelligent book with all the propulsion of a page-turner. * Amy Sackville, author of Painter to the King *
An intoxicating, sweltering and engrossing novel. It is truly one of the best books you will read this year. * Misha Honcharenko, author of Trap Unfolds Me Greedily *
Set in the bright, careless delirium of youth and saturated with colour, excess and lust, High Tide is a novel of striking beauty and gathering darkness – poetic, heart-throbbingly pacy and poignant in its exploration of art and agency. I devoured High Tide in a day, but I still wear its salt on my skin. * Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block *
Both grimily glamorous and campily Gothic, High Tide is a novel of love, art and insanity. Franchini injects all the thrills of a horror movie into a languidly tragic love story that trespasses from London’s wild art scene to the harshly beautiful Italian coast. * Dizz Tate, author of Brutes *
Whip-smart, slyly heartbreaking, and I felt the truth of it in my bones. Franchini dissects ideas of love, dating and identity in a way that feels both ruthless and humane. I loved it. * Sophie Mackintosh, on SHELF LIFE *
This is a book that should not be missed: a beautifully executed contribution to the discussion of toxic masculine behaviour and the patterns of socialisation that enable it. * Guardian, on SHELF LIFE *
Franchini’s voice is sharp and clever and her debut novel tells us truths about how and why we love. * Jessica Andrews, on SHELF LIFE *
Quirky, awkward and fresh… There’s a confidence to the wilful eccentricities of her writing. * Observer, on SHELF LIFE *
A quirky, funny, poignant book which shimmers with originality. I loved it. * Sarah Langford, on SHELF LIFE *

Livia Franchini is a writer and translator from Tuscany, Italy. Her recent publications include:

• Shelf Life (novel)
• The Sky Is Falling by Lorenza Mazzetti (English-language translation)
• Too Little / Too Hard: Essays on Writing, Work and Value (anthology)

Livia is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, where she also coordinates the Goldsmiths Prize. She lives in south-east London with her family.

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