Claire Powell – Author

Hello, I'm Claire Powell, author of At the Table. 

I've created this page so you can buy my book directly from here while supporting UK independent bookshops (and me!). I also love recommending books and I'm really looking forward to creating my own lists and sharing the links with you. 

At the Table has topped The Times list of summer reads and been named 'Novel of the summer'. It is also one of Simon Mayo's Books of the Year. Here are some other nice things people have said about it: 

'What sets At the Table apart is Powell's acute understanding not just of how we interact in the modern world...but the eternals of the human comedy: how people fool themselves, make excuses, get it wrong and keep trying anyway'

― The Times

'Filled with razor-sharp dialogue and psychological acuity, At the Table is an astute debut novel about dysfunctional family life '

― Observer

'Powell is a fantastic writer who exercises perfect control. Every detail is forensically, sympathetically observed, and while there's a lot that's tragic, it's often very close to comedy' 

– Daily Mail

'Claire Powell's great skill is to reveal to the reader what her characters struggle to realize themselves . . . Its themes are unremarkable - love, self-knowledge, the feeling everyone else is living while you are standing still . . . yet almost everything in it feels true' 

― Metro

'An exquisitely observed story of modern family dynamics' 

― British Vogue

'At The Table is an assured, exquisitely drawn novel that fans of Sorrow And Bliss will adore' 

– Red 

'The story's centre is Nicole - a spiky and charismatic woman struggling to get her life in order . . . Like Waller-Bridge's Fleabag and Rooney's Marianne, Nicole is her own woman: a complex and satisfying presence. At the Table is rich with delights'

― Harper's Bazaar

'A well-written, witty family drama'

– Good Housekeeping 

'A great depiction of families''

– Prima 

'Brilliantly clever and funny and sad about families and relationships'

-- India Knight

'I have rarely seen the relationship between parents and their grown-up children so deftly exposed. I sat, at the end of it, startled, close to tears. It made me want to call my mother immediately '

-- Sophie Heawood

'At the Table is a hugely intelligent, emotionally astute novel about family dynamics, and Claire Powell is an incredible new talent '

-- Marian Keyes

'Painfully funny, acutely well-observed, powerfully resonant in its humanity and emotional accuracy. I missed this book whenever I wasn't reading it' 

-- Luke Kennard

'A lovely novel. I adored the precision with which these people are seen, and the exactness of the social setting. I found myself absorbed in them, caring about them, wanting them to do the right thing, and I was very sorry to leave them. It's a novel Elizabeth Taylor wouldn't wouldn't have minded writing, and there aren't enough of those around' 

-- Philip Hensher

'A brilliant, coruscating depiction of dysfunctional family life. SO astute, on so many levels. I loved it' 

-- Hannah Beckerman