"Diana Evans is a lyrical and glorious writer; a precise poet of the human heart" (Naomi Alderman, author of The Power)"Thoughtful and intelligently observed... Evans's delicate prose weaves issues of racial identity and politics into the narrative so that they never feel heavy-handed...a deftly observed, elegiac portrayal of modern marriage, and the private ? often painful ? quest for identity and fulfilment in all its various guises" (Observer)"Achieves a moody, velvety atmosphere, as though events were unfolding under amber-tinted bulbs...offers a precise sketch of the British black middle class, with a daring fifth-act twist" (Katy Waldman New Yorker)"Evans gives us romance going cold with just as pitiless a precision as Flaubert in Madame Bovary... Evans's prose is magnificent: it's as if she measured each sentence, trimmed the excess weight, then fitted it into place" (Daily Telegraph)"One of the very many things that makes this book exceptional is the even-handed sympathy and unflinching fidelity with which Evans charts the changing weather both of her protagonists? emotions and family life. She excels at dialogue and she?s also a soulful lyrical chronicler of London in all its moods and guises" (Daily Mail)

'I am shouting from the rooftops to anyone who will listen about this book. It?s so so good ? realistic and funny and so truthful it almost winded me' Dolly Alderton Two London couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Melissa has a new baby and doesn?t want to let it change her but, in the crooked walls of a narrow Victorian terrace, she begins to disappear. Michael, growing daily more accustomed to his commute, still loves Melissa but can?t quite get close enough to her to stay faithful. Meanwhile out in the suburbs, Stephanie is happy with Damian and their three children, but the death of Damian?s father has thrown him into crisis ? or is it something, or someone, else? Ordinary People is an intimate study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, love and ageing. It is the story of our lives, and those moments that threaten to unravel us.