Ania Card's first novel is a “love letter to all the mistakes we make in our twenties, to friendships that feel like love”. It certainly transports you to the age where you feel like you should know who you are but still find yourself searching to truly work it out. Toni feels like she has found her true self when she meets Gav in a gay bar in Cardiff; there’s an instant connection sparking between them. Her relationship with his boyfriend, Karol, is more complicated, especially as both of them are hesitant to connect over the lives they lived in Poland. When a group trip to Swansea Pride ends in tragedy, Toni escapes to London, hiding her grief in another version of herself. Deftly written, all the moments in ‘Above Us The Sea’ – from pub fights to love affairs to grief – feel universal. KM

Published by Dead Ink Books