Claire Powell was born and brought up in South-East London. She is a graduate of the UEA Creative Writing MA, where she was awarded the Malcolm Bradbury Bursary and the Malcolm Bradbury Continuation Prize. Her short fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and in 2017 she won the Harper's Bazaar short story contest.
A smart, readable and sharply contemporary debut, full of awkward
family lunches and drunken weddings, darting between Camberwell
flats, Soho bars and late-night Ubers
*The Times and Sunday Times Best Books of 2022*
What sets At the Table apart is Powell's acute understanding not
just of how we interact in the modern world...but the eternals of
the human comedy: how people fool themselves, make excuses, get it
wrong and keep trying anyway
*The Times*
Powell is a fantastic writer who exercises perfect control. Every
detail is forensically, sympathetically observed, and while there's
a lot that's tragic, it's often very close to comedy
*Daily Mail*
The story's centre is Nicole - a spiky and charismatic woman
struggling to get her life in order . . . Like Waller-Bridge's
Fleabag and Rooney's Marianne, Nicole is her own woman: a complex
and satisfying presence. At the Table is rich with delights
*Harper's Bazaar*
Filled with razor-sharp dialogue and psychological acuity, At the
Table is an astute debut novel about dysfunctional family life
*Observer*
I have rarely seen the relationship between parents and their
grown-up children so deftly exposed. I sat, at the end of it,
startled, close to tears. It made me want to call my mother
immediately
*Sophie Heawood*
Claire Powell's great skill is to reveal to the reader what her
characters struggle to realize themselves . . . Its themes are
unremarkable - love, self-knowledge, the feeling everyone else is
living while you are standing still . . . yet almost everything in
it feels true
*Metro*
At The Table is an assured, exquisitely drawn novel that fans of
Sorrow And Bliss will adore
*Red magazine (online)*
Well-written, witty family drama
*Good Housekeeping*
A beautifully-written novel about what keeps a family together and
what tears it apart
*Lissa Evans*
At the Table is a hugely intelligent, emotionally astute novel
about family dynamics, and Claire Powell is an incredible new
talent
*Marian Keyes*
Painfully funny, acutely well-observed, powerfully resonant in its
humanity and emotional accuracy. I missed this book whenever I
wasn't reading it
*Luke Kennard*
A lovely novel. I adored the precision with which these people are
seen, and the exactness of the social setting. I found myself
absorbed in them, caring about them, wanting them to do the right
thing, and I was very sorry to leave them. It's a novel Elizabeth
Taylor wouldn't wouldn't have minded writing, and there aren't
enough of those around
*Philip Hensher*
I loved this novel about a family. Each chapter has a meal (or
drink, lots of drinks) and Claire Powell's writing and characters
are funny and heartbreaking and moreish. I'm jealous of anyone who
hasn't read it yet
*Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy*
Brilliantly clever and funny and sad
*India Knight*
At the Table is an assured, exquisitely drawn read that has
word-of-mouth bestseller written all over it
*Red magazine*
Filled with razor-sharp dialogue and psychological acuity, At the
Table is an astute debut novel about dysfunctional family life
*Observer*
An exquisitely observed story of modern family dynamics
*Vogue*
I loved this novel about a family. Each chapter has a meal (or
drink, lots of drinks) and Claire Powell's writing and characters
are funny and heartbreaking and moreish. I'm jealous of anyone who
hasn't read it yet.
*Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy*
Claire Powell's great skill is to reveal to the reader what her
characters struggle to realize themselves . . . Its themes are
unremarkable - love, self-knowledge, the feeling everyone else is
living while you are standing still . . . yet almost everything in
it feels true
*Metro*
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