All the Little Bird-Hearts: Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023

All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow was longlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction 2023. It centres on Sunday Forrester, who lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house where Sunday herself grew up.

Sunday moves through life with careful routines and a strong sense of order, including days when she eats only white foods. She turns to an etiquette handbook to manage social situations and retreats into a treasury of Sicilian folklore. Her settled world shifts when Vita and Rollo move in next door, bringing charm and a disregard for the rules Sunday tries to live by.

Key details

• Author: Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
• Longlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction 2023

Synopsis

Sunday Forrester shares her home with Dolly and keeps her days tightly structured. As Dolly approaches the point of leaving home, Sunday discovers that the one thing she cannot control is her headstrong, intelligent child.

When Vita and Rollo arrive next door, they quickly become part of Sunday’s life, moving between the two houses and offering a sense of acceptance she has not felt before. Beneath their polished exterior, however, something darker begins to surface: Vita wants what Sunday already has, a daughter of her own.