I loved Lullaby Beach. An engrossing family saga whose matriarch Kitty has taken her own life. Her body is found by Kitty's great-niece, Lucy, who cannot believe that Kitty has done this and, upon finding a note, she resolves to find out what its meaning is.

There follows a tale through three generations, from the 1950s to the present day, with Kitty being the highlight, amid the unravelling of family secrets. The characters are so well portrayed and the settings impeccable.

I hope Lullaby Beach will be a huge word of mouth success as it well deserves to be. Many thanks to NetGalley and Virago/Little Brown Book Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I adored Kitty,who was central to this story of strong women.
Her story takes place in the 50s mainly,but is the foundations of the present day tale.
In fact I adored all the women (and Tim and Geoff) who made up the different parts of this saga, each of them battling a different problem.
Very much a story of family love and loyalty for me.

Whenever I read Duffy I'm left to wonder why I dont read her more. This time I MUST do something about it.

This is my first Stella Duffy novel and I found it to be a powerful, stunning and engrossing read. It follows three generations of a family from the 1950s to the present day , it looks at the power of family secrets, the legacy of trauma and the treatment of women in our society. The novel moves from small town coastal England to 1950s London and beautifully captures the atmosphere and historic detail of the time periods. Duffy writes with such love and empathy for her characters. I was completely caught up in the story of Kitty in the 1950s and her nieces in the present day. I found it to be an extremely emotional read- there are graphic and shocking scenes but they are so very necessary to convey Kitty's story. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time and is one of my reads of the year.
Highly recommended
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

"Lullaby Beach" is a cocktail of female friendship, family ties, love and abuse and even arson. The premise is fantastic - a family matriarch aged 80+ commits suicide. Within less than 300 pages you are taken on the journey which spans three generations of the wonderful, complicated and wayward women. I so enjoyed this book and I loved the fact that Duffy writes with such palpable love towards her heroines.

I think Stella Duffy is hugely underrated - she is a great contemporary British writer and should be more widely read! This novel reminded me of the novels by Liana Moriarty (loved by so many!), who writes about modern families, interactions between sexes and hidden secrets.