Love Lane
On sale
11th February 2027
Price: £10.99
‘An engulfing, deeply humane novel about the triumphs and failures of human connection’ Marina Kemp
Patrick Gale, the bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author of A Place Called Winter, takes up Harry Cane’s epic journey as he returns to England for the first time in forty years. But will his family welcome him back? A story of love and sexuality, belonging and brutality, from ‘a rare kind of storyteller’ (Sarah Winman).
When a desperate mother and child arrive at Harry Cane’s farm on the Canadian prairies, the winter years he had imagined for himself are lost forever.
Forced to sell up and sail back to an England transformed by two world wars, Harry is an outsider in his old country and a stranger to the family he left behind.
In Liverpool, his daughter feels duty bound to take him in. But Harry’s presence sparks unexpected revelations across three generations, not least the residents of 5 Love Lane.
As long-buried anger, secrets and desires simmer beneath the surface, can Harry make a new life before it’s too late, or will he be cast out once more?
A Radio 2 Book Club pick
‘Extraordinary’ – James Cahill
‘Patrick Gale has a stature afforded to few literary novelists’ – Telegraph
‘The comedy has a Forsterian ease in its profound Englishness’ – Guardian
‘Rich in emotional truth’ – Clare Chambers
‘Patrick Gale is one of the world’s greatest storytellers’ – Joanna Cannon
‘There is no judgement here, only humanity. A joy and a lesson for our time’ – Ann Cleeves
Patrick Gale, the bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author of A Place Called Winter, takes up Harry Cane’s epic journey as he returns to England for the first time in forty years. But will his family welcome him back? A story of love and sexuality, belonging and brutality, from ‘a rare kind of storyteller’ (Sarah Winman).
When a desperate mother and child arrive at Harry Cane’s farm on the Canadian prairies, the winter years he had imagined for himself are lost forever.
Forced to sell up and sail back to an England transformed by two world wars, Harry is an outsider in his old country and a stranger to the family he left behind.
In Liverpool, his daughter feels duty bound to take him in. But Harry’s presence sparks unexpected revelations across three generations, not least the residents of 5 Love Lane.
As long-buried anger, secrets and desires simmer beneath the surface, can Harry make a new life before it’s too late, or will he be cast out once more?
A Radio 2 Book Club pick
‘Extraordinary’ – James Cahill
‘Patrick Gale has a stature afforded to few literary novelists’ – Telegraph
‘The comedy has a Forsterian ease in its profound Englishness’ – Guardian
‘Rich in emotional truth’ – Clare Chambers
‘Patrick Gale is one of the world’s greatest storytellers’ – Joanna Cannon
‘There is no judgement here, only humanity. A joy and a lesson for our time’ – Ann Cleeves
Reviews
Patrick Gale has long been one of the most reliably captivating, sympathetic storytellers ... as ever, his sense of time, place and human frailty is impeccable and scorchingly humane. Beautiful storytelling
Arms-wide-open storytelling ... glorious, immersive, tender
Achingly tender, subtle ... infused with love in all its messy forms
Masterful storytelling. It is atmospheric and tender, while portraying the frequently complex dynamics of family. Gale is a fantastic scene-setter, whether it's the desolate prairies of Saskatchewan or the inside of Walton Prison; you won't be able to put it down
A gentle, absorbing unfolding of the experiences and mores of new generations. This empathic novel has the texture of social history: expect quiet surprises over sudden twists, and a satisfying, moving conclusion
The comedy has a Forsterian ease in its profound Englishness ... Gale's descriptions of the small commonplaces of domestic life often have a pure brilliance to the. There is a refreshing warmth and gentleness in Gale's precisely imagined vision of these connected lives that makes for a kindly, immensely companionable read
He is a brilliant storyteller, with a deep tenderness for his characters. He has a gift for understanding the heart and is a writer for whom the workings of the human heart are no mystery. What a great pleasure it is to spend time with a novel where there is kindness, goodness and acceptance
Patrick Gale brings his usual compassionate sympathy, impeccable research and elegant style to his powerful new novel. Love Lane is an involving story of reconciliation, secrets and compromises, rich in emotional truth and evocative historical detail
Five threads of storytelling interweave to form the braid of a novel both poignant and elegiac. A story of missed opportunities and, ultimately, a memorable story of forgiveness
An intimate and closely-observed novel - a family drama full of heart-rending moments illumined by the power of suppressed desire. The characters feel real, knowable and alive. Full of rich detail, this story brings private pasts to light with all of Gale's signature warmth, grace and humanity
This is a captivating novel from beginning to end. Beautifully paced, it combines characters that spring immediately to bouncing life, a capacious and compassionate humanity and vividly convincing historical insight. With delicate strands of family story wound expertly into a profoundly involving narrative of passion lost and found, Love Lane traces all the strange and wonderful ways of the heart
He brings a musicality and rootedness to his prose along with a seemingly effortless skill of narrative that makes the work both compelling and rich. Crucially, he reminds us that while social mores and even laws may change, bigotry and brutality often lurk just beneath a polite surface. This is a vital tale, beautifully told
There is no judgement here, only humanity. A joy and a lesson for our time
An extraordinary creation, one of the most atmospheric and subtly realised novels I've read in a long while
He makes you care about the characters who feel real, and you so badly want the world to treat them with the respect, kindness and attention they deserve
Nobody is better than Patrick Gale at discovering the extraordinary stories that are hidden in the cracks of ordinary lives, and Love Lane is his finest novel yet: a family history that is full of yearning and as tender as a mother's embrace
Miraculous, mischievous and quietly devastating, Love Lane is the irresistible story of five individuals, linked by the past and yet separated by the present. I have just fallen in love with a beautiful book
Love Lane moved me greatly. The novel has a great sweep, in its story, and in the richness and vividness of each of its character. This is a book about secrets and lies, yet Gale has such an exact and elegant power as a storyteller that the experience of reading the novel is rousing. I think it wonderful
Patrick Gale has once again shown us the cracks in the human heart and the bravery of living. He holds decades in paragraphs, years in a sentence, and with perfect economy and discretion allows us to feel how generations face or hide from their foes. This is a beautiful and chiselled novel: prepare to cross the ocean and weep
With Love Lane, Gale gets right to the secret joys and hidden heartbreaks of ordinary, flawed family life. A tender, delicately devastating novel
I adored this book. Patrick Gale is one of the world's greatest storytellers. All the characters have unspoken truths. Hugely comforting and an absolute joy to read
I adored this book. Patrick Gale's writing glows with compassion, as does his subtle, unflinching insight into his characters. Love Lane is an engulfing, deeply humane novel about the triumphs and failures of human connection
A wonderfully hypnotic story of ties and bonds that can be outlawed but not broken. Unputdownable
It's a novel about love in old age, secrecy, a sexless marriage, duty and grief, and parenthood - moving, humane and compelling
Probing ideas of belonging, family and escape, Gale is the kind of author who doesn't let you down
As ever, Gale powerfully evokes the push-pull of family ties, the anguish of secrets and his belief in true love - whatever its name
Love Lane is typical of Gale's fiction: compassionate, but underpinned by an emotional clarity, and a crisp understanding of the past ... he has a stature afforded to few literary novelists
Longing, sadness and love are the emotions that colour this quietly devastating novel ... Gale chronicles secrets, heartbreak and happiness, as Harry embraces his twilight years with a twinkle in his eye and discovers the true meaning of home