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The Wreck
'Satisfyingly detailed and juicy... an utter treat' Amy Liptrot
'A tender and wise portrait of love and friendship that ponders with an astonishingly light touch big questions to do with who we are and how we live. She’s done it again!' Chloë Ashby
Two couples pursue their dream of communal living in the English countryside – and then it all comes tumbling down, in this stunning new illustrated novel from the prize-winning author of Alison
Charlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid-1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart.
When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community.
At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing each of them in a new light.
The Wreck is a glorious genre-defying illustrated novel about the messy tangle of love, envy and desire that underpins our most precious relationships, and the difficult paths we must take to discover our true selves.
'No other writer or artist can pinpoint the queasy interdependence of class and the arts in England with such nauseous accuracy, only to pull the rug out from under us with tenderness' Joanna Walsh
'I fell hopelessly in love with The Wreck... A beautiful, funny, clever, insightful book' Lisa Owens
'A one-of-a-kind novel. I adored every page of it' Ana Kinsella
'A tender and wise portrait of love and friendship that ponders with an astonishingly light touch big questions to do with who we are and how we live. She’s done it again!' Chloë Ashby
Two couples pursue their dream of communal living in the English countryside – and then it all comes tumbling down, in this stunning new illustrated novel from the prize-winning author of Alison
Charlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid-1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart.
When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community.
At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing each of them in a new light.
The Wreck is a glorious genre-defying illustrated novel about the messy tangle of love, envy and desire that underpins our most precious relationships, and the difficult paths we must take to discover our true selves.
'No other writer or artist can pinpoint the queasy interdependence of class and the arts in England with such nauseous accuracy, only to pull the rug out from under us with tenderness' Joanna Walsh
'I fell hopelessly in love with The Wreck... A beautiful, funny, clever, insightful book' Lisa Owens
'A one-of-a-kind novel. I adored every page of it' Ana Kinsella
323 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2026
14 people are currently reading
483 people want to read
About the author
Lizzy Stewart
30 books70 followersLizzy Stewart is a British illustrator and author currently based in London. She has written and illustrated various books for children and adults. Her debut full-length illustrated novel Alison was published in 2022. She teaches illustration at Goldsmiths University and has also taught courses on behalf of the National Portrait Gallery.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
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December 19, 2025Just the perfect combination of words and pictures - a graphic novel but also with lots of text which I delighted in lingering over. Lizzy Stewart is so good at capturing human emotion through both drawing and writing.
The Wreck is about two couples: Charlotte and Bill, and Fran and Adrian who in the 1980s decide to test the idyllic dream of living communally in a big house in the English countryside. For a summer their lives are perfect, until they aren't.
Another contender for my books of the year!
The Wreck is about two couples: Charlotte and Bill, and Fran and Adrian who in the 1980s decide to test the idyllic dream of living communally in a big house in the English countryside. For a summer their lives are perfect, until they aren't.
Another contender for my books of the year!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
It's felt like a while since I've really loved a new (or soon to be published) book, so The Wreck felt like a complete breath of fresh air. I can't remember the last time a book had me so excited to get back to it, and I will be amazed if this isn't one of my books of the year by the end of 2026!
Part novel and part graphic novel, The Wreck is the story of four friends, two couples, who in the 1980s decide to try living together in their forties in a big countryside house - a utopia of sorts. As they each find a way to live together, some easier than others, they create a wonderful existence together that makes you wonder why more people don't do this. But of course, tensions and feelings soon erupt and the bubble bursts.
I loved the way Lizzy Stewart carefully crafted each character. All four of them felt distinct to me, and you could really grasp how and why each of them were feeling the way that they did. The way class, ambition, happiness, creativity mean something different to them all. I thought it explored friendship with such honesty - the way we compare ourselves, the need to impress, but also the drive they can create in you to fulfil your ambitions. Also just the sheer joy of having those few friends who know you almost inside out, the kind of friendships that are almost impossible to recreate as a fully fledged adult.
I loved Lizzy's beautiful drawings equally as much as the prose, and found The Wreck to be such a wonderful reading experience. I already have her previous graphic novel, Alison, lined up to read. I hope The Wreck gets all the praise it deserves in 2026!
Part novel and part graphic novel, The Wreck is the story of four friends, two couples, who in the 1980s decide to try living together in their forties in a big countryside house - a utopia of sorts. As they each find a way to live together, some easier than others, they create a wonderful existence together that makes you wonder why more people don't do this. But of course, tensions and feelings soon erupt and the bubble bursts.
I loved the way Lizzy Stewart carefully crafted each character. All four of them felt distinct to me, and you could really grasp how and why each of them were feeling the way that they did. The way class, ambition, happiness, creativity mean something different to them all. I thought it explored friendship with such honesty - the way we compare ourselves, the need to impress, but also the drive they can create in you to fulfil your ambitions. Also just the sheer joy of having those few friends who know you almost inside out, the kind of friendships that are almost impossible to recreate as a fully fledged adult.
I loved Lizzy's beautiful drawings equally as much as the prose, and found The Wreck to be such a wonderful reading experience. I already have her previous graphic novel, Alison, lined up to read. I hope The Wreck gets all the praise it deserves in 2026!
December 28, 2025
weeping, weeping
March 10, 2026
FIVE STARS AMAZING
April 12, 2026
Seamless. Lizzie Stewart is a masterful storyteller, her talent is in telling the lives of her characters, making them real and knowing the small details that can expose a person. I knew from reading ‘Alison’ that this would stop me in my tracks. Thoroughly recommend.
March 29, 2026
I am, fittingly, a complete wreck after finishing ‘The Wreck’. Reading it felt like pushing on a bruise: it’s painful, but you keep returning to it, chasing the ache.
In ‘The Wreck’, Lizzy Stewart explores some really painful emotions, like jealousy, insecurity, and resentment, some of them justified — like the protagonist Charlotte’s experience of class difference and sexism — and some of them a bit uglier: Charlotte’s envy of her friends’ seemingly easy lives, her youthful and shame-filled confusion and longing towards her best friend’s husband, Adrian, and a growing resentment and bitterness that she notices but can’t stop. It’s uncomfortable, but completely compulsive, and I just couldn’t stop reading.
The emotions laid bare on the pages, in immaculate prose and hand drawn watercolor, are both recognizable and intensely familiar — perhaps that’s why this book feels so powerful. Stewart is unflinching, laying bare every ugly feeling stored inside her protagonist; and I felt myself split open and seen, too. Who hasn’t felt young and overlooked, wanting to be special, watching others have an easy time of it while you struggle to fit in? It’s vulnerable and nostalgic in equal measure, and I felt completely swallowed by the book.
Also, I know it’s a novel about an affair, but MY GOD can this woman write female friendships! I was deeply moved by the final section, which moves into Francesca’s perspective. After being carried through the affair narrative, you expect her section to be the portrait of a wronged woman; but I was shocked and delighted to find instead one of enduring warmth, respect and, yes, longing towards her once best friend, even long after the affair blew up their friendship. I don’t know why I expected anything less — the clues are in Stewart’s previous works, ‘Alison’ and ‘It’s Not What You Thought It Would Be’, both of which are *so* good on ambivalent and enduring female friendships; but I was impressed, all the same, by her generosity and the freshness of her portrayal of this gorgeous, messy friendship.
That final panel, in which the two women run into each other in the street after 20 years apart, had me in tears; whoever said that friendships can’t be as bruising and confusing and sustaining and frustrating and beautiful as romantic relationships has never read a Lizzy Stewart graphic novel.
What a gift.
In ‘The Wreck’, Lizzy Stewart explores some really painful emotions, like jealousy, insecurity, and resentment, some of them justified — like the protagonist Charlotte’s experience of class difference and sexism — and some of them a bit uglier: Charlotte’s envy of her friends’ seemingly easy lives, her youthful and shame-filled confusion and longing towards her best friend’s husband, Adrian, and a growing resentment and bitterness that she notices but can’t stop. It’s uncomfortable, but completely compulsive, and I just couldn’t stop reading.
The emotions laid bare on the pages, in immaculate prose and hand drawn watercolor, are both recognizable and intensely familiar — perhaps that’s why this book feels so powerful. Stewart is unflinching, laying bare every ugly feeling stored inside her protagonist; and I felt myself split open and seen, too. Who hasn’t felt young and overlooked, wanting to be special, watching others have an easy time of it while you struggle to fit in? It’s vulnerable and nostalgic in equal measure, and I felt completely swallowed by the book.
Also, I know it’s a novel about an affair, but MY GOD can this woman write female friendships! I was deeply moved by the final section, which moves into Francesca’s perspective. After being carried through the affair narrative, you expect her section to be the portrait of a wronged woman; but I was shocked and delighted to find instead one of enduring warmth, respect and, yes, longing towards her once best friend, even long after the affair blew up their friendship. I don’t know why I expected anything less — the clues are in Stewart’s previous works, ‘Alison’ and ‘It’s Not What You Thought It Would Be’, both of which are *so* good on ambivalent and enduring female friendships; but I was impressed, all the same, by her generosity and the freshness of her portrayal of this gorgeous, messy friendship.
That final panel, in which the two women run into each other in the street after 20 years apart, had me in tears; whoever said that friendships can’t be as bruising and confusing and sustaining and frustrating and beautiful as romantic relationships has never read a Lizzy Stewart graphic novel.
What a gift.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Sumptuous, complex, and so very human. This is what graphic novels were meant for.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Utterly beautiful and heartbreaking, sharp and observant and full of essential truths about friendship and love - I ADORED IT
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April 6, 2026Goodreads won't let me rate this because apparently it's not out yet (never mind I have a hardback from Waterstones), but it's 5 stars.
April 12, 2026
Loved this! Such a good combination of comics/drawing/prose and full of complex beautifully written characters. Many deeply relatable sections that made me feel very SEEN!!
April 19, 2026
Magnificent.
I really think a good graphic novel can’t be beaten.
I really think a good graphic novel can’t be beaten.
April 19, 2026
complex and messy and fun, with so much depth. loved the layer of meaning the illustrations added
April 20, 2026
OBSESSED. LOVE LOVE LOVE. this has really opened my eyes to this type of work !!!!
cannot rate enough
cannot rate enough
April 21, 2026
Essential reading, no matter if you dont reach for graphic novels. I loved it.
April 22, 2026
Oh my heart
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews