Fig Tree As Young as This.

by Roxy Dunn

'This debut novel about womanhood and expectations will be one of the most exciting of the year' INDEPENDENT, the best fiction books to read in 2024'A young woman's life, told through the men she has dated. With glorious attention to detail and emotional fluency, Dunn charts the ways in which we are built and broken by love' PANDORA SYKES***An irresistible and achingly relatable debut novel for anyone who has ever had to let go of what they thought their life would look like and open themselves up to the dizzying possibilities of chance.Elliot. Joe. Tommy. Nathanael. Wren. Oliver. Malik. Zach. Frank. Patrick. Noah. These are the men Margot has loved, liked, lusted over.Since she was seventeen, she’s pictured them like stepping stones – each one bringing her closer to finding someone to share her life with and, eventually, father the children she’s always imagined in her future.From her first sexual encounter, to her first love, from grown-up dilemmas to spontaneous thrills, she’s soaked up every experience available to her, discovering friendship, joy and despair. Through all of this she’s refined her search until she believes she’s arrived at ‘the ending’ to her story.So how did she find herself here, single at thirty-four, and about to make the biggest decision of her life?'Raw, funny and beautiful . . . A really gorgeously observed novel about youth and womanhood' DAISY BUCHANAN, author of Careering'Relatable, poignant and gripping ... I read it in a single day' LIBBY PAGE, author of The Lido'Warm, witty, wise . . . A thoughtful and moving portrait that made me laugh and cry' CHLOË ASHBY, author of Wet Paint

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction, Coming Of Age, Adult Fiction, Audiobook

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2024

About the author

Roxy's debut novel, As Young as This (published by Fig Tree, Penguin) was sold at auction and was a Best Book of 2024 in The Independent, Harper’s Bazaar, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, and Sunday Times Style. She is also a screenwriter and alumni of the BBC Comedy Room. Her scripts have been optioned by several production companies and her pilot Useless Millennials was commissioned and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Wants and Needs is her second novel. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Jasmine Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Updating my review 3 months after I finished this book in hindsight, I review this fairly averagely after reading it but have found myself thinking about it regularly over the last few months and think I have been to harsh. Moving from 3 stars to 4. I think the concept of this book was really interesting, having each chapter be about a different relationship she had in her life etc and to follow her story and growth this way was clever. It highlighted how different relationships shape us and structure our lives. The characters are flawed and complex, which in my opinion are the best kind of characters to read about and you do get to watch them grow and develop as the story goes on. I've found myself recommending this book to several friends over the last fews months and will continue to. Especially if you have been a fan of the Dolly Alderton, Rosewater etc style of book.

Original review:
One of my favourite the genres “young women living in London trying to figure out what she’s doing with her life” (relatable content) this was another good story with this premise. Focusing on all the different men she’d been with in her life and how this shaped her and changed her through her life. I like the premise I enjoyed the story I just wasn’t blown away.

Thank you for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

[Lea Benková · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down one of the best books I've read this year, sharing the first places with Blue Sisters and Evenings and Weekends.

Margot's idea of men as stepping stones is what I believe to be a universal experience of all the girls who were raised on the premise of "the one" waiting for them out there and being complete only once you've found that person. Roxy Dunn has brilliantly captured the various experiences of being in love and its different forms. She guides us through all kinds of it - from ambiguous situationships to long committed partnerships, the certainty of finding your person to fleeting lust, the everlasting love we share with our friends and family to the momentary affection. Throughout Margot's story we will experience the pain of a heartbreak, the desire to get her happily ever after and the growing pains along with the inevitable realizations on love and life that shape us as humans.

[Sofia Ambrosio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsure how to review this because the writing was phenomenal and I believe Roxy has great potential as a novelist but I wasn’t awed by the end of it at all. I wasn’t sure I’d like the premise of the book when I was purchasing it but came to really love it after reading the first couple chapters, specially because of her wit and dry sense of humour. She has some great passages in there - I did loads of underlining and note writing, particularly during the first half of the book.

But as the ending approached I started feeling quite detached from it. For starters, it felt slightly like there was less purpose and thought put into the words. Also, there were some aspects of it that genuinely started bothering me. For instance, a main character with basically no job but seemingly un struggling in London, and traveling abroad with a frequency - I’m guessing thanks to her parents? I feel like the struggle with her career while living in the most expensive city in the UK wasn’t highlighted enough at all for a self-proclaimed analytical person. And that’s the second thing that bugs me. Throughout the book Margot is referred to as very practical, critical, dry and logical. But I felt a huge dissonance between that description and how I actually perceived the character. She didn’t seem to be any of those things to me! I did really like her consistency as a character but I’m not sure Margot is what the author wanted her to be in the first place. It kind of seems like she ran away from Roxy.

All this brings me to some sort of inner debate. Is my issue with the book that Margot doesn’t seem to be focused enough on her career development and too focused on love and family? Can you only be one or the other? As a woman, should I judge her for directing all that energy at the men in her life and for prioritising having children? I don’t think I should, and that’s not necessarily what I was doing but then why am I expecting her to dwell more on her work when - even if acting is her passion - having a family is her ultimate happy goal? (Maybe what I dislike about the book is what I dislike about myself?)

So in all, I’m unsure. The writing begs a 4 star review from me but I’m sticking with a 3 for now because of the things mentioned above and that the ending wasn’t as strong as I’d expected. Might come back and update once a couple weeks have gone by.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always been Margot's dream to grow up, get married, and start a family. Now, she's 34 and single, just having broken up with her long time boyfriend. This isn't the life she envisioned, so how did she get here?

Every chapter of this book focuses on a man that Margot has loved, lusted over, been serious, or had a fling with. I thought it was so interesting to go through her life, from adolescence to early adulthood, watching her make mistakes, fall for people she shouldn't, learn, and grow.

The ending hurt me so much!!!! Which is honestly the best thing that could have happened because I love when books leave me with a gut punch 😂

I know that a lot of single people in their 20s and 30s can probably relate to Margot. Her sister didn't really have to try that hard, and didn't seem to care as much as Margot about having a family and settling down with someone, yet it seemed so easy for her. Finding a partner I think is big parts luck!

This book taught me that every relationship, every situationship, every talking stage, sets the stage for who you become and how you grow as a person, and none of it is a waste, even if you're 34 and single!

It might feel hard that life didn't go the way you had planned, but if you stay true to yourself, you'll never come out of experiences at a loss and that is truly what matters.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ★ rounded down because this book, along with two screaming toddlers on the train, reinforced my wish never to have children

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still can’t quite decide how I am feeling about this book. There are definitely aspects that I enjoyed and some that I didn’t. I’m still trying to work out whether I like the ending or not.

Surprisingly, I actually really got into the second person narrator. It was the first book I’ve read in this narration style, and having find it quite tiresome for the first few pages after a short while it felt natural. I actually found it to be a really good device for holding up a mirror to your own experiences, in comparison with those in the book, making me reflect on my previous relationships.

In theory, the structure of chronologically working through each boy that Margot had been involved with was exciting but in reality I found large sections of it to be quite boring and the way that each character is passed through means that often, even the longer and more profound relationships in the book feel underdeveloped and one-dimensional. For example, it feels like with Noah’s character, who is the final partner in the book and meant to be the most important meaningful romantic relationship of the book, we never really get to know him in a way that allows us to feel Margot’s pain and truly empathise with her when they break up (not a spoiler - we know this from chapter 1). I would’ve also liked some more sense and narrative arc to the men that Margot chooses to date, so that we get a bit more psychoanalytic content about the way she behaves in relationships - this is alluded to when she speaks about her relationship with her father but never really fully takes shape I feel.

However, what I did enjoy about the book is realising - almost as I finished the last page - that it’s not really about men and relationships at all, despite being a book about men and relationships. What we reflect on at the end of the book is the characters in the story is the characters who have been there all along - her sister Romily, her best friend Lillie. So despite barely any sentence passing the Bechdel Test in this novel what I do think is clever is the emphasis on female friendships and the importance of relationships with the other women in our lives, and the way the author invites us to in turn reflect on this in our own lives.

Side note - I found Margot’s ability to continue living a comfortable life in London despite having essential no job at times in the book quite distracting from the story.

[Hayley R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel like every woman in her mid to late twenties should read this

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5?

Wat losse gedachten: ik herkende mezelf, mijn tijdsgeest (tieneren in de 2010s) en heel veel liefdesavonturen ENORM in dit boek, maar ik deed best wel lang over het lezen. Zelfs op vakantie jeetje. Het greep me niet echt en ik heb er weinig van opgestoken. En het is wel een heel specifieke doelgroep (meiden met 6 van de 7 vinkjes) met erg specifieke verlangens: een man en kind. Thats it. Ze had bijvoorbeeld nauwelijks vrienden en ze werkte ook eigenlijk nooit. Minpunten

[Cherry (cherryreadsbooks) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t actually know how this has an average rating of more than 4 stars because while the writing was decent, the characters, most of all Margot, were really 2D.

Margot doesn’t seem to grow as a character, so there’s not much I can say from the character development front. She goes from wanting to find her One True Love and having his biological baby/babies, to REALLY wanting to have a biological baby even if through artificial insemination (why not adoption huh is that a lesser choice??), to actually having a baby with the love of her life. Who she was with the first guy, is who she still is with the last one. Like, okay. I’m not saying feminists can’t want to be monogamous, marry a man, and give birth to his child. It’s a personal choice, right? But in no instance does Margot *seriously* interrogate the origins of these desires, nor does anyone else in this novel, really, no matter how “woke” they’re supposed to be. Even Ishani just miraculously subscribes to a heternormative way of life, no explanations given. Maybe Margot and friends should prioritise friendships and familial relationships, and be okay with themselves instead of tying much of their identity to a monogamous romantic relationship?

References to her career and anything other than romance, kids, and family, seem very brief and perfunctory. She’s supposedly quite passionate about acting and comedy but after the first couple of chapters, it seems like her passion became… dating? She’s also supposedly funny, a good comic, but I can’t imagine a life of a privileged cishet presumably White woman offers much by way of comic material. Also, in her interactions with others, she’s funny in context, but there’s no inkling that that would translate to stand up comedy humour.

Margot also has a serious case of main character syndrome. I mean, she *is* the main character, but she also reminds me of the friends I have who will screenshot dating app profiles and make fun of or shade perfectly okay men. She is quite entitled, and seems to expect that things should fall into place for her just because she’d like for them to. The way the book is structured makes me feel like I’m reading a lovesick teenage girl’s diary.

Which goes into why I had issues with the second person narrative. It forces the reader to experience the events of the novel firsthand as the main character. However, it makes for a really painful reading experience when I’m forced to immerse in a character whose motivations, personality and beliefs are so far removed from my own. I felt like I could appreciate this when I was 13-15, not where I am now in my late 20s.

Btw you’re allowed to like this book, and the fact that someone did not doesn’t invalidate your enjoyment of it!

[Andiswa Mpulo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looks at past lovers and how they have shaped the main character Margot. There is a running them of mediocracy and never living up to your full potential. She is so sold on the idea of what a relationship and love is suppose to be that she forces herself to be in mediocre relationships, toxic relationships, that have no love nor respect for her. Which could be a reflection of the relationship she has with her father. The way she never reaches her full potential at work is a reflection of the amount of hours she puts in, you can see that as she gets deeply enchanted by her relationships she loses her work ethic and still wants people to give her grace and treat her as someone great. Which is one of her downfalls as a person.

This book is a beautiful representation of reality, there are a lot of things that we hope to achieve in life, including marriage and when we do not, we put ourselves in compromising positions just so we could be assimilated in society and not seen as outcasts. This also affects the relationships we have with our siblings and friends. The way Margot compares herself to her friends in terms of relationships and career, her feelings towards them are not of full admiration, there is a bit of jealousy and resentment hiding in the crevices of her friendships. The same can be said about the relationship she has with her sister, especially because love comes so easily for her sister.

This book gives you an opportunity to witness true, raw human emotions at their highest point, and as much as you would love to hate Margot, there is a piece of you that can resonate with her intense emotions (including her self pity).

[Derval Tannam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"..you are acutely aware of your lack of ties to anyone at this point in your life which enables you to roam at leisure, at no cost or benefit to anyone else's happiness."

"There's probably lots about love you still don't understand but know by now that fear is pointless, that its only guarantee is loneliness."

I really loved this book. I loved Margot's relationship with her parents, her sister, and Lillie. Sometimes she seemed a bit detached as a narrator, but the Wren and Noah chapters felt very real and very raw. I enjoyed the twist at the end, and the ending was satisfying if mildly heartbreaking. The way Margot described loving her nephew resonated, too. Excellent!

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, so many passages I underlined and shared with friends, thanks for this lovely book

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am sad

[Gabrielle Anagnostopoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trying to summarize how I felt about this book is proving difficult. What starts as a funny and honest look at our main character's past relationships (and how her life has changed throughout) turns into a touching and melancholic rumination on parenthood, family, and how it feels to be a woman in her early thirties.

It completely floored me with the direction it ended up going in, and the story was handled with such lightness that the impact didn't really hit me until a few minutes after I finished the last page. Everyone should read this!!

[Mirte Van De Kerckhove · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 ⭐️

I absolutely loved loved loved reading this book - right from the first until the last page.

I love how the story is divided into her ex-boyfriends, but how in the end Margot really is the main character and you learn about her experiences and the way she grows as a person.

As a girl in her (early/mid) twenties, a lot of the main character’s dreams and fears were painfully relatable but I’m left with this immense feeling of hope and gratitude 🩷

I highly recommend!

[Harriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

💬 “Do you regret any of them?”

💭 Roxy Dunn’s debut novel offers a fresh, painfully-truthful look at love, the plans we make, and what we do when they all go wrong. With many a laugh out loud moment mixed with some more poignant, heartfelt messages, this was a fantastic read.

On the brink of a big decision, Margot reflects on all the men she has ever loved: Elliot, Joe, Tommy, Nathanael, Wren, Oliver, Malik, Zach, Frank, Patrick, Noah. They all had something different to offer - whether it’s first love, sex spas, a secret affair, or a stand up comedy routine (or two) - and she is not afraid to look back at the good, the bad, and the downright embarrassing. Especially when she’s found ‘the one’ and things are looking up. But for how long?

Although it took me a little while to get into, I ended up loving the choice of second person narration. Sometimes I find it harder to engage with this narration style, often feeling a sense of detachment from the characters and their feelings, but this time it worked for me. I felt the very nature of the book - a reminiscent look back to all her past loves - really leant itself to this style too as it allowed Margot space to reflect on her past experiences knowing what she knows now, years into the future. It almost felt as if I was reading an old diary, with a few thoughts from the future sprinkled in.

Margot herself was at many times incredibly frustrating, and often self-indulgent, but also extremely relatable and entirely loveable; someone you want to both shake and hug. Shelley was the perfect protagonist in this sub-genre of books that can only be described (in the very long winded way) as, ‘twenty somethings who are living in London and trying to work their lives out’.

Overall I really enjoyed this one and although it’s a bold claim to make, I do think AS YOUNG AS THIS does have a certain Dolly Alderton edge to it, so if you loved EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE or GHOSTS, I would really recommend picking this one up.

[Spadge Nunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooo this one was fun. It felt enjoyably like reading someone’s diary of their entire dating history. And so beautifully written and self critical. I wish I’d read it 10 years ago, it could have been wonderfully educational.

Each chapter is about a different man; each story, each experience, the one that got away, the one that strung her along, the one that caused irreversible trauma *cough*. It felt real, raw and relatable.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I really can’t decide if it was a blessing or a curse. I’m still thinking about it a week later, but I’m unsure if that’s because I wish it was different. Hmm.

Let me know if you’ve read it what you thought to the ending.

Favourite quote(s):

‘As you get older, you will grow in allegiance to your own sex and feel deeply ashamed to have ever held this view, so that in your thirties you will feel compelled to stress the importance of female solidarity to younger women, but as much as possible will resist this urge: partly because it feels hypocritical to preach about loyalty when you consider your own betrayal to Wren's wife, and partly because you suspect most twenty-something-year-olds already hold higher moral standards than you did at this age - and as for the ones who don't, surely they should be allowed to learn through living, as you did?’

‘You watch him press his wrists into the corners of his eyes, and then you do cry because witnessing him attempt and fail to hide his pain is somehow so much more distressing than watching him fall apart.’

[Erin Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 11 of 2025
3.5 rounded up ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The review that pulled me towards this book said it was for ‘fans of Dolly Alderton’ and this is certainly correct.

It was a touching recount of Margot’s relationships from high school to present adulthood, ultimately resulting in her pursuing IVF and solo parenthood. Some of the relationships resonated with me more than others and I think that’s an excellent quality to the progression of the chapters mapping different stages in Margot’s life. Everyone will be able to relate to at least one chapter and work through some (painful) nostalgia.

The conclusion that womanhood doesn’t always turn out how you had planned at 13 was a sobering and reassuring round up to end the novel.

[Alba · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2,75)

No me puedo creer que haya tenido que leer a una tía decir perlas como que no entiende por qué alguien priorizaría quedar con sus amigos que con un tío al que está CONOCIENDO E INTENTANDO LIGARSE. Venga ya.

El libro se hace pesado. ¿Cómo no iba a ser así si son 12 capítulos de relaciones con hombres? El único en el que no hay un tío es el último y son dos páginas.

No sé que esperaba, pero creo que leer a una chavala durante 17 años teniendo relaciones que no deseo a mis amigas no era eso. Tal vez soy muy cínica para este tipo de libros. Poco más que decir la verdad, que hay que coger las recomendaciones con pinzas

[Lene · Rating 5 out of 5]

ein perfctes beispiel für ein main character lifestyle. viele (happy) ends, aber es gibt immer mehrere schlussstriche im lebenslauf. beim lesen habe ich mich dabei erwischt auf das eine perfekte ende zu hoffen und mich sehr oft in der protagonistin wiedergefunden. erschreckend beruhigendes buch, dass den druck davor nimmt immer, dass immer alles glatt gehen muss.

[julie shcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is probably not really good book, and i think the use of second person narration should always be justified, and here i'm not sure that's the case. but for whatever reason, i enjoyed it immensely.

[Emma Waitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous book

[Joke Drabs · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2, aah the identification is real.

[Sylvie Hullinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it would be more like "Really Good, Actually" but it was instead kind of a bummer that somehow listed every possible London neighborhood. I did not need to know the exact intersection of every pub, nor did I need to know the bus -> tube -> walk route taken to go to a market.

[Kim Schintgen · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, this book is a revelation of feelings I have felt but never really knew how to articulate. It’s a deeply honest, bird-eye view on past relationships, on how they shape and continue to haunt us. Really liked the observant writing style and ambiguity of emotions.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An emotional rollercoaster — I was deeply moved by Margot’s story, especially in Wren and Noah’s chapters. The last few chapters were intense to say the least.

[Matilda Hick · Rating 5 out of 5]

every feeling was BEAUTIFULLY articulated. cried at the end, felt like I went on that journey with her

[Charlotte Goulding]

Never read a more true statement about what it’s like being a big sister.

‘She'd once admitted to you that as the older sister she felt your pain in the way a parent would, that it wasn't the normal empathy you have for a friend when they're sad or distressed, but that it went into her own body as though via osmosis.’

[Mark Bucktin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really interesting and went somewhere unexpected compared to others similar

[Teddi · Rating 5 out of 5]

so good. so well written!