Gunk

by Saba Sams

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • An electrifying first novel from “a fresh new voice in fiction” (Emma Cline, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest ), the story of two women circling one another—working side-by-side, sleeping with the same man, inching toward friendship—until an unplanned pregnancy reveals the true nature of their connection. Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works with him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. She spends her nights serving shots and watching, from behind the bar, as Leon flirts with students on the dancefloor. In the early hours of the morning, she trudges home to sleep alone. But then Leon hires eighteen-year-old Nim to work the bar with Jules—Nim, with her shaved head and steady pour, her disarming sweetness and sudden distance—and Jules finds herself jolted awake. When Nim discovers she’s pregnant, Jules agrees to help. As the months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing, it emerges that Nim has her own unexpected gifts to give. Now, alone in her small flat, Jules is holding a baby, just twenty-four-hours old, who still smells of Nim. But no one knows where Nim is, or if she's coming back. What could the future—for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby—possibly look like? Raw, surprising, tender and wise, Gunk is an exhilarating debut novel exploring love and desire, safety and destruction, chaos and control— and family in all its forms.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Saba Sams is a fiction writer based in London. Her stories have appeared in The Stinging Fly and The Tangerine. She was shortlisted for The White Review Short Story Prize in 2019. Her debut collection of short stories Send Nudes was published by Bloomsbury in 2022.