Greatest Hits

By Laura Barnett W&N, £12.99

The follow-up to journalist Laura Barnett’s acclaimed debut novel

The Versions Of Us, Greatest Hits is a deftly woven tale of love, life and loss. As she launches a new album after a three-decade hiatus, acclaimed singer-songwriter Cass Wheeler looks back on her career and her life. After childhood abandonment by her mother and wayward teenage years, Cass finds her voice through music. As the older, reclusive Cass sits down to listen to the 16 songs she has selected to be her “greatest hits,” she takes a journey back through the past as the songs she listens to trigger memories both sweet and painful, of sunny days and of shattering pain, of glittering success and deadening failure. As the records play, Cass’ past unravels, taking in love affairs and family dynamics and revealing the tragic reason for her withdrawal from the spotlight. A moving read with a complex protagonist which entrances from beginning to end.