Front cover of Love Forms by Claire Adam, paperback

Love Forms : Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 - Claire Adam

Claire Adam

£9.99
  • Pages · 304 pages
  • Publication Date · 21/05/2026
  • Genre · Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Collect in store Pick it up free from the shop in Oxford's Covered Market, usually quicker than the post.
Delivery Standard tracked £1.99, free on orders over £20. Express tracked £2.99.
Book Lovers' Happy Hour Three cocktails matched to your taste, three books chosen for you, an hour and a half at the bar. £60 per person. Book a place →

WINNER OF THE ENCORE AWARDLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE JHALAK PRIZE 'A quietly devastating masterpiece.' MARIAN KEYES
'Adam is a master storyteller.' SARA COLLINS
'Exquisitely written ... compelling and tender.' MONIQUE ROFFEYIn the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago. When Dawn Bishop was sixteen, she left her home in Trinidad and journeyed across the sea to Venezuela. There, she gave birth to a baby girl and returned to Trinidad alone. Dawn tried to carry on with her life: a move to England, a marriage, two sons and a divorce. But she never stopped thinking of her daughter and of what might have been. Forty years later, a woman gets in touch on an internet forum, claiming that she might be her long-lost daughter. Dawn dares to hope that this may be a way back to her past. Could she finally give form to all the love and care a mother has left to offer?'Reads like a Claire Keegan short story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.'THE TIMES
'From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother's love. It's an absolute triumph.'SARA COLLINS
'Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.'MONIQUE ROFFEY
'An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.'CLAIRE KILROY'A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.'ROMESH GUNESEKERA

Only at Gulp Fiction

Book Lovers' Happy Hour

An hour and a half at the bar, with three cocktails matched to your taste and three books chosen for you. Tell us what you like when you book, and we'll have them waiting when you arrive.

  • 1½ hours
  • £60 per person
  • 3 cocktails, 3 books
Book Happy Hour

Up to four of you can come — book a place each and choose the same time slot, then tell us who you're with. For larger groups, email gulpfictionbooks@gmail.com and we'll arrange it.

Three customers at the window table in Gulp Fiction, cocktails in hand beside a stack of books, with Oxford's Covered Market visible through the glass

Collect in store

Order online and pick it up from the shop. It's free, and usually quicker than the post.

Find us

Units 28–29, Covered Market, Oxford OX1 3DU. Mon–Wed 10–5, Thu–Sat 10–10, Sun 11–4.

Book a table

The bar is open late Thursday to Saturday. Reserve a table for a drink among the books.