The Start of Something: The sharp, compulsive and thought-provoking book club read for 2025

'Bold, playful, generous and lush, it's a story that feels both timeless and urgent - I loved it. Gorgeously and relentlessly queer!' DAISY BUCHANAN A lover. A bartender. A husband. An artist. A student. A poet. A sex worker. A welder. A drag queen. A mother. As the sun sets over the city streets, ten ordinary lives collide with extraordinary consequences. From thrilling first meetings and impulsive liaisons, to messy misunderstandings and passionate reconciliations, each connection has the potential to be the start of something, or already hints at its own ending. Yet uniting them all is the desire to find true intimacy in a fractured modern world - to see, and to truly be seen... A razor-sharp, intoxicating and thought-provoking novel of ten interlocking sexual encounters that will appeal to fans of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, and 'Modern Love' from the New York Times. Praise for Holly Williams: 'It's the new One Day' FABULOUS 'Delightful, insightful and immersive' KATE EBERLEN 'Invigorating...combines the fizz of a romance with an earnest inquiry into the vastly changing fortunes of women, along with questions of class and privilege' Hephzibah Anderson, THE OBSERVER 'An unforgettable story with writing that sparkles: a gem of a read' HOLLY MILLER