Compensation: The unforgettable must-read debut novel for 2027 - ‘Dazzlingly brilliant. I haven’t felt like this about a book in years’ JULIET STEVENSON

by Augustine Cerf

Georges is dead. Charlotte’s live-at-home, darling son took a blow to his head while out drinking, and she had to find him, still wearing last night’s clothes, lying on top of his sheets. He was only thirty-four.

Left with only her philanderer, porn-addicted husband Erik for company, Charlotte desperately casts around for a way – any way – through her immeasurable grief.

Erik, a surgeon, will remove their dead son’s sperm, and a surrogate will bring his baby into the world. The couple turn to Lena, their undocumented cleaner who has big dreams of her own. And as the once-established power dynamics begin to shift between the trio, desperation and guilt will push all three to their limits.

Fearless, biting, and darkly funny, Compensation is an intoxicating story about delusion, domesticity, and above all, the strange shapes it can twist us into, what we’ll justify in its name, the tragedy of being bad at it, and the beauty of loving easily and generously.

'Equal parts beautiful and bonkers, Compensation is an exhilarating joyride through the madness of grief and the gift of loving' TOBI COVENTRY, author of He's the Devil

'Addictive, and devastating ... A uniquely brilliant novel, sweet and cutting in the same breath' GRACE MURRAY, author of Blank Canvas

Augustine Cerf 2027 (P) Penguin Audio 2027

Audible Audio

Expected publication January 28, 2027

About the author

Augustine Cerf is a writer from London. Compensation is her first novel.