Perfect Explanation

A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains. Here, in the pages of this extraordinary book where the unspoken is conveyed with vivid simplicity, lies a story that will leave you reeling.

Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize 2019Longlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize 2019Observer: Fiction to look out for in 2019The i Paper’s 30 of the best new debut novels to read in 2019Scottish Review of Books: 2019 in ProspectAs featured on BBC Woman’s Hour, Sky Sunrise and London Live‘Filled with cerebral intensity and scintillating dialogue’ —The Desmond Elliott PrizeExploring themes of ownership and abandonment, Eleanor Anstruther’s bestselling debut is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell (1892–1964), granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll. Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood. Here, in the pages of this extraordinary book where the unspoken is conveyed with vivid simplicity, lies a story that will leave you reeling.