The Palm House Paperback by Gwendoline Riley

Product Details

• Publisher: New York Review Books (2026-04-14)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 224 pages
• ISBN-13: 9798896230526
• Item Weight: 272.16 grams
• Dimensions: 21.54 x 14.61 x 1.22 cm

From the author of My Phantoms and First Love, a droll and quietly evocative novel about work, friendship, family, and the path—so often muddled—toward finding one’s place in life.

Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds, with long evenings spent huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, where they share office gossip, reflect on their teenage passions, and lament the state of the world.

Recently, though, Putnam has been harder to reach: He has lost his father, and the magazine to which he has dedicated his life has been hijacked by an insufferable new editor, Simon “call me Shove” Halfpenny.

Laura has her own problems: Living in London, a beautiful but also indifferent city, with a prickly mother to manage and a tricky past to contemplate, she finds that day-to-day life presents its difficulties. And as Putnam starts to sink into despondency, she must try to bring him back.

A novel of enduring friendships and small mercies, The Palm House offers us Gwendoline Riley’s trademark keen observation and wit, and leaves us with a sense of possibility.

About the Author

Gwendoline Riley was born in London in 1979. She is the author of seven novels, including First Love, My Phantoms, and, most recently, The Palm House. In 2018, The Times Literary Supplement named her as one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today.