WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE

FROM THE COSTA AWARD-WINNING, WOMEN’S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUND

Every parent lies. But some lies are bigger than others…

In the summer of 1976 eight-year-old Peggy Hillcoat is taken from London by her survivalist father to live in a cabin in a remote European forest. When they arrive he tells Peggy that her mother and the rest of the world are gone.

Now the two of them must scratch a living from the earth: trapping squirrels, foraging for berries, surviving winter as best they can. But it is easy to lose you way in the forest, to lose yourself. How long will Peggy trust her father's story? How long can you stay sane when the world is lost? And what happens when you stop believing in everything?

‘Extraordinary’ The Sunday Times

‘Remarkable’ Penelope Lively

‘Haunting, suspenseful … As warped and sinister as any Brothers Grimm fairytale’ Metro

‘A rivetingly dark tale … Spellbinding’ Sunday Express

Prizes

Winner of Desmond Elliott Prize 2015

Extraordinary...From the opening sentence it is gripping...Fuller writes with a singing simplicity that finds beauty amid the terror...might well have you crying out for more. * The Sunday Times *
Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue. * The Times *
Bewitching...a rivetingly dark tale...spellbinding. * Sunday Express *
Fuller's twisted tale is compulsive, treading the fine line between charming and sinister. With its disturbing twist, Our Endless Numbered Days could well become a classic. * Stylist, 'Book Wars' *
Rewardingly unsettling...as warped and sinister as any Brothers Grimm fairytale, this tautly written, tense novel is brilliant at evoking both the bewitching beauty of its setting - and its inherent dangers...haunting, suspenseful and deftly written...memorably chilling. * Metro *
Straightaway I was intrigued to find out where this novel was heading... Fuller evokes the natural world's beauty and brutality. * The Independent *
A debut novel that brings to mind such unlikely bedfellows as Thoreau's Walden and Emma Donoghue's Room...gripping. * Guardian *
I tore through it, found it utterly gripping and loved its hypnotic atmosphere. The beauty and pleasures of the natural world pitted against the unravelling horrors of isolation and insanity worked brilliantly. * Esther Freud *
A remarkable first novel, I was much impressed by the conviction of the child's eye view, the vivid climate and the power of the narrative. * Penelope Lively *
Our Endless Numbered Days is suspenseful, utterly riveting, and as dark as midnight in the forest. * Rebecca Hunt (author of Everland and Mr Chartwell) *
Excellent...I loved the combination of Peggy/Punzel's absolutely authentic child's precision for detail and her day-to-day matter-of-factness (often very funny) with the strangeness of the world she inhabited...very powerfully imagined... absolutely compelling. * Morag Joss (author of The Night Following) *
Narrated with warmth and compassion, Our Endless Numbered Days is a haunting and beautiful novel. I loved every page. * Daniel Clay (author of Broken) *

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written five previous novels including: Unsettled Ground, which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.