Strange Girls

*A 'Most Anticipated Book of 2026' as selected by DAZED, THE NEW ARAB and LITHUB* 'Touching, infuriating and painfully true . . . [Strange Girls] demands to be read' Julia Armfield 'Captures the messy, tense and beautiful struggles where friendship meets longing . . . I envy whoever reads it next for the very first time' Lucy Rose 'Dreamy, hypnotic . . . utterly gorgeous' Jennifer Saint From award-winning author Sarvat Hasin comes a stunning novel about creativity, longing and all the words left unsaid. What happens to a love story that has nowhere to go, and who has the right to tell it? A decade has passed since Ava spoke to Aliya. Aliya has everything Ava wants - a room of her own and a publishing deal - and, worse, the thing Ava was certain neither of them had ever wanted: a sensible doctor husband. Arriving back in London for a mutual friend's hen party, Ava is desperate to unpack the truth of their shared history and what they meant to each other. Aliya and Ava first met in the halls of their historic campus with dreams built upon Emily Brontë, Brideshead Revisited and Richard Curtis films. Their connection was electric. They created a world of their own through the stories they wrote, influencing and borrowing from each other's work. But when the end of university loomed, the real world began to pull them in opposite directions. Was their bond ever truly as strong as they thought? And what would become of the stories they told themselves about each other? Weaving together their past and present, Strange Girls is an ingenious exploration of the ties forged in the intensity of youth, and the scars left when they break. 'Feverish, feral' Kiran Millwood Hargrave 'Sarvat Hasin is a storming talent' Daisy Johnson 'Intoxicating . . . I'm obsessed' Kat Dunn

Sarvat Hasin is a novelist and dramaturg from Pakistan. She has a master's in creative writing from the University of Oxford. Her first novel, This Wide Night, was longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her second book, You Can't Go Home Again, was featured in Vogue India's and The Hindu's 'best of the year' lists. Her third novel, The Giant Dark, was a runaway critical success, won the Mo Siewcharran Prize and was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. She lives in London.