BOOKER PRIZE LONGLIST 2026 | Caly recommends...Helen of Nowhere - Mackenna Goodman

A wonderfully shapeshifting and unpredictable read that carefully interrogates our relationships to the structures that hold us - the people and places we exist within - and the potential we have to change within this. Witty, rhythmic, funny and unpredictable in the best of ways...

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In the middle of the countryside, a realtor is showing a disgraced professor around an idyllic house. She speaks not only about the home's many wonderful qualities but about its previous owner, the mystifying Helen, whose presence still seems to suffuse every fixture.

Through hearing stories of Helen's chosen way of living, the man begins to see that his story is not actually over – rather, he is being offered a chance to buy his way into the simple life, close to the land, that's always been out of reach to him. But as evening fades into black, he will learn that the asking price may be much higher, and stranger, than anticipated. Philosophically and formally adventurous, at once intimate and cosmic in scope, Helen of Nowhere asks: What must we give up in exchange for true happiness?