Steps

The first time Derek was ever afraid of the children was two or three weeks in, when Angelo screamed at them for ruining his life, and headbutted the plate in front of him until it was shrapnel... Sophie and her five children, still reeling from tragedy, relocate from Canada to her partner Derek's childhood home in England. There they attempt to forge a new life together - but their new family is shadowed by grief, myth, and a lingering sense of the uncanny. Through shifting perspectives, from Jules, the delicate middle child, to fierce Ema, to volatile Angelo, debut author Juliano Zaffino paints an unforgettable portrait of love, loyalty, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Blending psychological suspense with intimate family drama, and with echoes of Virginia Woolf and Shirley Jackson, The Steps is both deeply moving and eerily unsettling, a meditation on trauma, family bonds, and the thin line between tenderness and violence. 'It has been a long time since I've been as riveted by a first novel' Lauren Groff 'An exceptional debut from an immensely talented author' Doireann Ni Ghriofa 'Brutal but tender, suffocating yet expansive, The Steps is moving, unsettling and utterly human' Rebecca Perry