Blank Canvas by Murray, Grace

Description

Author: Murray, GraceModern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)Published on 15 January 2026 by Penguin Books Ltd (Fig Tree) in the United Kingdom.Paperback | 288 pages136 x 215 x 25 | 298g
Superb Witty, assured, energisingly original GUARDIANRazor-edged and emotionally rich Exquisite LUCY ROSE, AUTHOR OF THE LAMBThe kind of interior voice that ensnares you The art college campus novel Ive always wanted. Grace Murray is one of those writers who you can devote yourself to CLAIRE KOHDA, AUTHOR OF WOMAN, EATINGIntroducing an outstanding new voice in literary fiction: a sensual, sharp, and utterly compelling campus novel about grief, reinvention, and the ripple effects of telling liesIf I ever woke up with an ungodly dread that I could change it all now, turn around, and confess I ignored it. I had never been good, and there was no point in trying now.On a small liberal arts campus in upstate New York, Charlotte begins her final year with a lie. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden.Charlotte had never been close with her classmates but as she repeats her tale, their expressions soften into kindness. And so she learns there are things worth lying for: attention, affection, and, as she embarks on a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. All she needs to do is keep control of the threads that hold her lie and her life together.But six thousand miles away, alone in the grey two-up-two-down Staffordshire terrace she grew up in, her father is very much alive, watching television and drinking beer. Charlotte has always kept difficult truths at arms length, but his resolve to visit his distant daughter might just be the one thing she cant control.