Only Here, Only Now

Trade Paperback

Hardback

Paperback

Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2025

'This isn't just a great first novel; it's a great novel. And Cora, the mad, chaotic, wise, funny narrator, is one of the great characters'

RODDY DOYLE

'It's not every day you read a modern classic. But this feels destined to become one. A thunderous achievement'

NATHAN FILER

Fife, in the blazing hot summer of 1994. Cora Mowat is stuck on a seaside council estate with a thousand dreams and a restless brain that won't behave. She's dying to escape but unsure of what the future holds - if it holds anything at all for a girl like her.

When her Mam's new boyfriend moves in, tensions rise in their tiny house. Gunner means well, but he's dodgy - a shaven-headed shoplifter with more than a few secrets stashed under the bed. As their attempts to forge a makeshift family unravel, Cora rails against her small-town existence in search of love, acceptance and a path to something good. But sometimes you can't move forward until you find your way back . . .

In this extraordinary debut, drawn from life but written with riotous imagination, Tom Newlands explores what it means to come of age in a forgotten corner of Scotland and dream of a life that feels out of reach. Vibrant, lyrical and fiercely funny, Only Here, Only Now is a story about poverty, identity and family that shines with hope and resilience.