The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus: 'An unputdownable novel about female friendship and the events that shape us' COSMOPOLITAN - Softcover

Knight, Emma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1529433967 ISBN 13: 9781529433968

Publisher: Quercus, 2025

Synopsis

*THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

'An unputdownable novel about female friendship and the events that shape us' COSMOPOLITAN

'Addictive, nostalgic and comforting, this layered family mystery crept round my heart' CLAIRE DAVERLEY

Pen and Alice, childhood best friends from Toronto, are in their first year at the University of Edinburgh. Each has come to the city for her own reasons.

Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she'll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father's - now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox - lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lennox's centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents' secret, just as she's falling in love for the first time . . .

Meanwhile Alice, an aspiring actor, sees university as her route to the West End and beyond. The star of this year's theatre production, she's making the most of the power she wields as an object of desire - until an affair with her tutor begins to slip from her control.

Witty, warm and wildly unputdownable, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is at once a love story and an irresistible mystery, a celebration of female friendship, and a study of how looking back can help us move forward.

'A book to lose yourself in' FRAN LITTLEWOOD
'Brimming with heart' JENNY JACKSON
'Luminous . . . as smart as it is delicious, as nostalgic as it feels fresh' ASHLEY AUDRAIN
'Joyous, clever, and wholly transportive' KATY HAYS
'Emma Knight's witty, wistful debut will keep you up all night' JOANNA RAKOFF
'A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us' CARLEY FORTUNE

About this title

About the Author

Emma Knight is a Canadian writer. Her work has appeared in British Vogue, Literary Hub, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus. She has written two cookbooks, both national bestsellers. Emma studied Modern Languages at the University of Edinburgh and Journalism and International Affairs at Sciences Po Paris. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is her first novel.

From the Back Cover

A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us' CARLEY FORTUNE



'Luminous . . . as smart as it is delicious, as nostalgic as it feels fresh' ASHLEY AUDRAIN

Pen and Alice, childhood best friends from Toronto, are in their first year at the University of Edinburgh. Each has come to the city for her own reasons.

Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she'll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father's - now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox - lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lennox's centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents' secret, just as she's falling in love for the first time . . .

Meanwhile Alice, an aspiring actor, sees university as her route to the West End and beyond. The star of this year's theatre production, she's making the most of the power she wields as an object of desire - until an affair with her tutor begins to slip from her control.





Witty, warm and wildly unputdownable, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is at once a love story and an irresistible mystery, a celebration of female friendship, and a study of how looking back can help us move forward.

Edition details

• Publisher: Quercus
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1529433967
• ISBN 13: 9781529433968
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384