Claire Messud

When the Armstrong family moves from New York at the dawn of the 1970s, Australia feels, to Alice Armstrong, like the end of the earth. Residing in a grand manor on the glittering Sydney Harbour, her family finds their life has turned upside down....

Originally published in 1994, When the World Was Steady is award-winning author Claire Messud's first novel....

As Julie and Cassie enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship....

A glimpse into a beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature....

Julia Robinson and Cassie Burnes have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace....

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children, a masterly new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed and betrayed by a desire for a world beyond her own. Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago...

Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all....

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 '[A] wise and insightful novel about identity and family' The Times, Book of the Day 'An epic family odyssey... Ambitious and compelling' Guardian, Book of the Day 'A rich, sprawling saga... This Strange Eventful History may be Messud's finest book' Sunday...