2025 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction (shortlist)
A Belletrist Book Club Pick
Named a Best Book of May 2025 by TIME, Town & Country, People, Ms. Magazine and Lithub.
"A sumptuous treat of a novel." -Bolu Babalola, author of HONEY AND SPICE
For fans of Sweetbitter and The Bear, an intoxicating debut novel set in the glamorous, exclusive, and unexpectedly raucous world of wine.
Four wine experts, each at a crucial point in their lives, arrive at a French vineyard estate for an unforgettable experience-but not the kind they expected. Avery gave up her hard-won but exploitative sommelier job to come, while wine prodigy Cosmo is trying to disguise that his life is in freefall. The chemistry between the pair is unmistakable, but so are the signs of danger. Millionaire Sonny owns a tacky wine brand and can't help aggravating Cosmo, while caustic magazine writer Maëlys hovers with her pen poised.
It seems at first that these four have little in common except for their love of wine and their belief in its transformative power. But, as the quartet awaits the penultimate night of the trip, when they will taste the only bottle of one of the rarest wines in the world, it becomes clear that each of them grapples with a private crisis. Each projects their ultimate hopes and fears onto the contents of this bottle, a bottle rendered divine by age and scarcity.
Unfolding over several days of indulgence in delicious food and drink, raucous debauchery, and transformative truths that will leave each character changed forever, Lush is a sensuous tour of the wine industry's extreme pleasures and pains, a captivating summer read that, like a fine vintage, will linger long after you've finished turning the pages.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Named a Best Book of May 2025 by TIME, Town & Country, People, Ms. Magazine and Lithub.
"A sumptuous treat of a novel." -Bolu Babalola, author of HONEY AND SPICE
For fans of Sweetbitter and The Bear, an intoxicating debut novel set in the glamorous, exclusive, and unexpectedly raucous world of wine.
Four wine experts, each at a crucial point in their lives, arrive at a French vineyard estate for an unforgettable experience-but not the kind they expected. Avery gave up her hard-won but exploitative sommelier job to come, while wine prodigy Cosmo is trying to disguise that his life is in freefall. The chemistry between the pair is unmistakable, but so are the signs of danger. Millionaire Sonny owns a tacky wine brand and can't help aggravating Cosmo, while caustic magazine writer Maëlys hovers with her pen poised.
It seems at first that these four have little in common except for their love of wine and their belief in its transformative power. But, as the quartet awaits the penultimate night of the trip, when they will taste the only bottle of one of the rarest wines in the world, it becomes clear that each of them grapples with a private crisis. Each projects their ultimate hopes and fears onto the contents of this bottle, a bottle rendered divine by age and scarcity.
Unfolding over several days of indulgence in delicious food and drink, raucous debauchery, and transformative truths that will leave each character changed forever, Lush is a sensuous tour of the wine industry's extreme pleasures and pains, a captivating summer read that, like a fine vintage, will linger long after you've finished turning the pages.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A sumptuous treat of a novel." - Bolu Babalola
"Lush is a sparkling debut by a brilliant new writer. A rich, full-bodied reading experience sure to leave readers drunk on Dowden-Lord's prose." - Eliza Clark
"Lush is a breathtaking novel-dare I say, intoxicating. This book grabbed me from the very first page and didn't let me go. Dowden-Lord has an incredible eye for detail, for nuance, for human relationships, for flaws and humour. Her voice is so masterful, so precise, so spellbinding that you know instantly that you will follow it wherever it leads." - Okechukwu Nzelu
"Rochelle Dowden-Lord writes like an angel with whisky on her breath . . . Beautiful." - Alice Slater
"Lush is a sparkling debut by a brilliant new writer. A rich, full-bodied reading experience sure to leave readers drunk on Dowden-Lord's prose." - Eliza Clark
"Lush is a breathtaking novel-dare I say, intoxicating. This book grabbed me from the very first page and didn't let me go. Dowden-Lord has an incredible eye for detail, for nuance, for human relationships, for flaws and humour. Her voice is so masterful, so precise, so spellbinding that you know instantly that you will follow it wherever it leads." - Okechukwu Nzelu
"Rochelle Dowden-Lord writes like an angel with whisky on her breath . . . Beautiful." - Alice Slater
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Used availability for Rochelle Dowden-Lord's Lush