Something Like Happiness
From the multi-award-winning author of Only Here, Only Now
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Something Like Happiness
Narrated by:
Jimmy Chisholm
Buy Now for £17.94
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Narrated by:
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Jimmy Chisholm
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By:
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Tom Newlands
WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025
'A beautifully observed story of love and its endless obstacles'
Irish Times
'A major new talent in Scottish literature'
Vogue France
'So compelling and tender. Tom Newlands has a unique and truthful voice'
Kathy Burke
Frazer and Caitlin have come a long way without ever leaving their dead-end town. They were teenage sweethearts but years later, life's got serious: the flat they share is barely habitable, money is tight, and their autistic son is struggling at school.
Caitlin dreams of fresh carpets and clean walls, but for Frazer Apex Court is the only home he has known. It's where his parents lived and died and where the memory of them remains.
He's asked Caitlin to marry him twice. She tries to leave most weeks. They still love each other - but is it enough?
Startlingly original, this blistering and timely new novel confirms Tom Newlands as one of the brightest talents of his generation.
'Newlands is always alive to the everyday, offhand beauty of the world. Remarkable'
Herald
'A beautiful novel, written with grace, clarity and tenderness'
Scotsman
'Newlands writes beautifully about the small, easily missed moments through which life and love are revealed'
Nathan Filer©2026 Tom Newlands (P)2026 Orion Publishing Group Limited
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Critic reviews
Newlands writes beautifully about the small, easily missed moments through which life and love are revealed. A subtle, humane and quietly moving novel (Nathan Filer)
Something Like Happiness grabbed me from the first sentence. Vividly drawn, affectionate and tender, the characters burst from the page and I wanted to shake them and hug them by turns. A brilliant and compelling portrait of a couple wrestling with the need for change and the comfort of familiarity (Lucy Apps)
Tom Newlands has done it again. A poignant examination of grief, family and the limits of love in a world working against you. With unstoppable wit and red-hot dialogue, Something Like Happiness effortlessly transports you inside its characters' worlds as they grapple with the lives they inherited and the ones they deserve (Gab Torr)
A beautiful novel, written with grace, clarity and tenderness. Newlands conveys the generational inheritance of our political past and present with subtlety
A gorgeous, sad vision of marginal lives, full of love and grief and anger and pain. Newlands is always alive to the everyday, offhand beauty of the world. Remarkable
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