London Book Award nomination Lucy Caldwell: '.. a beautifully written and mature reflection on identity, loyalty and belief in a complex world.'

Prof Peter Stead in the Guardian on The Meeting Point: “a beautifully written and mature reflection on identity, loyalty and belief in a complex world . . . a lyrical modern-day parable set in Bahrain depicting the crises in the faith and marriage of an Irish woman and her relationship with a troubled Muslim teenager. Yet another significant step in what will undoubtedly be a striking career."

Novelist and playwright Caldwell - who is under commission to write for the main stage at the Royal Court Theatre - wrote her first book Where They Were Missed while at university. She has recently been awarded the Dylan Thomas prize for her new novel, The Meeting Point, which took Caldwell six difficult years to complete. She said: “Three years in I ditched a 100,000-word draft. It was awful. Normally when you finish something you're rushing to send it out. I just had this sinking feeling, and put it away. After a couple of weeks I came back and knew it wasn't any good. I didn't know what to do. I had ploughed all of my advance into research.” Fellow novelist Kiran Desai convinced her to plough on however – and no doubt she’s glad she did. website