Claire Adam: The Value of Reading

Claire Adam is a novelist born and raised in Trinidad, who studied Physics at Brown University before settling in London. Her debut novel Golden Child won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the McKitterick Prize, and the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and was named one of the BBC's 100 Novels that Changed the World.In this episode, Grace talks to Claire about finding the voice of a reluctant narrator, what fiction can do that facts cannot, and why once you feel something in a book, it stays with you permanently. Love Forms was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. The Booker judges called it "a rare and low-pitched achievement" that "reads like a hushed conversation overheard in the next room." The Times described it as "every bit as good as her debut" and likened it to "a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout." The FT said it "achieves a sort of alchemy."Find the book here or get it your local seller.