Albion - by Anna Hope (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A finely crafted, propulsive, and nuanced story of family, inheritance, and accountability that shakes the country house novel to its foundations from the internationally acclaimed author of Expectation. The Brookes are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home-twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone-to bury their patriarch, Philip. Father, grandfather, husband, landowner, one-time hippy, long-time philanderer, Philip was the blinding sun around which the family has orbited their entire lives. Eldest daughter Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, mother to a daughter whose future she fears for, dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defense against the coming climate catastrophe. Her brother Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn to create a better world. Each believes their father has given them his blessing and are set on a collision course with the other. Isa, Philip's estranged youngest child, only hopes to reconnect with her childhood love who still lives on the estate, to discover if her feelings for him are creating the fault lines in her marriage. Grace, bruised and diminished after fifty years in a loveless marriage, is at a crossroads, wondering whether she may finally have the strength to choose between freedom and duty. And then there is Clara, who arrives from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture the dreams on which they've built their lives. Beautifully layered and utterly compelling, Anna Hope's multigenerational saga is a bold, brilliant, and deeply contemporary examination of family dynamics, colonial legacies, and class, set against the backdrop of the climate crisis"--

Book Synopsis

"Albion explores the complexities of family, trauma, nature, human nature, landscape and escape in language that is as provocative as it is tender."--Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

A finely crafted, propulsive, and nuanced story of family, inheritance, and accountability that shakes the country house novel to its foundations from the internationally acclaimed author of Expectation.

The Brooke family are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home--twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone--to bury Philip: husband, father, and the blinding sun around which they have orbited their entire lives.

Eldest daughter Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, has dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defense against the coming climate catastrophe. Her brother Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn. Each believes their father has given them his blessing, setting them on a collision course with each other.

Isa, Philip's estranged youngest child, only hopes to reconnect with her childhood love who still lives on the estate, to discover whether it is her feelings for him that are creating the fault lines in her marriage.

And then there is Clara, who arrives in their midst from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture all the dreams on which they've built their lives.

Beautifully layered and utterly compelling, Anna Hope's multigenerational saga is a bold, brilliant, and deeply contemporary examination of family dynamics, colonial legacies, and class, set against the backdrop of the climate crisis.

Review Quotes

"This book, its fascinating characters, steady paced plot, and haunting prose will stay with you long after reading." -- Cosmopolitan (UK)

"The climax is well worth the wait--a big, fat, old-fashioned dinner gone wrong, with dramatic speeches and shocking revelations . . . . Hope breathes fresh thinking into the dusty corners and overgrown hedges of the English country house dilemma--without telling the reader what to think. It meant that I closed Albion with a delicious sense of uncertainty." -- The Times (UK)

"Hope wrangles her large cast with aplomb as she probes issues of class and stewardship. This gratifies." -- Publishers Weekly

" There are shades of both Succession and Saltburn at play here, with Albion promising more of the emotional acuity that Anna Hope wielded so well in 2019's Expectation." -- Independent (UK), "The Best Books to Look out for in 2025"

"Anna Hope's beautiful new novel Albion explores the complexities of family, trauma, nature, human nature, landscape and escape in language that is as provocative as it is tender." -- Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

"A superb deftly woven novel . . . Anna Hope engages, head-on, with some of the most urgent and challenging issues facing the world today, and transforms them into spellbinding family drama." -- Jonathan Coe, author of Mr. Wilder & Me

"The English country house novel re-imagined for our times: an exceptionally well-drawn portrait of a battling family, which also astutely wrestles with the issues around rewilding, inheritance, and colonialism." -- Claire Fuller, author of The Memory of Animals and Unsettled Ground

"A book that asks important questions about legacy--familial, historical and global--and which seeks to answer them with delicate insight and beautiful prose." -- Elizabeth Day, author of Friendaholic and Magpie

"A compassionate, immersive novel that intelligently navigates historical pride and guilt, and the echo of history that resonates powerfully through the lives of Anna Hope's compelling contemporary characters. Albion balances the reality of who the English were against the hope of who we might become." -- Richard Beard, author of Sad Little Men

"Anna Hope plunges us straight into the claustrophobic world of a family turned inside out by the death of the deeply flawed patriarch, and propels us towards a devastating conclusion. Compelling." -- Kirsty Wark