Shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. As Romy Hall embarks on a pair of consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women's Correctional Facility she must adapt to an environment in which thousands of women hustle for the essentials to survive. The absurdities of institutional living are recorded with deadpan humour and precision in this return from the critically-acclaimed author of }The Flamethrowers{ SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of internationally acclaimed The Flamethrowers – a fearless and heartbreaking novel about love, friendship and incarceration. Romy Hall is starting two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility. Her crime? The killing of her stalker. Inside awaits a world where women must hustle and fight for the bare essentials. Outside: the San Francisco of her youth. The Mars Room strip club where she was once a dancer. Her seven-year-old son, Jackson. As Romy forms friendships over liquor brewed in socks and stories shared through sewage pipes her future seems to unfurl in one long, unwavering line – until news from beyond the prison bars forces Romy to try and outrun her destiny. 'Kushner is one of our most outstanding modern writers' STYLIST 'More knowing about prison life [than Orange Is The New Black]... so powerful' NEW YORK TIMES