Reminiscent of something Rebel Inc would have published in the 90s or Anthony Cartwright would have written a few years later, Fit is a revelation – and, yes, I’m implying that you don’t see many novels like Fit in any given year. What white middle-class readers want to read about are white middle-class characters (and if you don’t think that is most publisher’s sweet spot - please think again), not normally about Fit’s poor working-class kids trying to rise above their own, their family’s and society’s expectations. And let’s not fool ourselves, these are not great expectations. Occasionally, however, the powers that be throw down a glass slipper to prove that, you know, ‘anyone can make it’. In Fit’s case Rose takes that slipper with “a coolness - strange, mocking and aloof”, which a photo on Instagram captures and becomes a social media sensation. The people she knows watch with a mixture of concern, envy, and hatred as she accepts modelling jobs in London: a northern care-leaving Cinderella who, whether she likes it or not, represents where she comes from with all the psychological baggage that brings. Unsurprisingly, brittle Rose’s happiness seems to be a “cliff you might fall off”, a cliff her and some of her contemporaries are equally wary of (and attracted to). Meanwhile her damaged and permanently stoned brother drifts dangerously out of control. A ‘they lived happily ever after’ seems unlikely. Or is it? Written with verve and absolutely packed full of great lines this Northern Book Prize winner heralds a new talent. I guess I’d have to say Sammy Wright is well Fit.

Published by And Other Stories - £8.99

Steven Long