Anna Hope – författare

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE BALLROOM AND EXPECTATION'Poetic, philosophical and wildly captivating... I swam in this book and didn't want to come up for air' Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals and Adults___________________They are separating, she and her husband, after two decades together.This fact is new. Only really a fact for a few weeks or so. Before that it was a possibility - one potential outcome among many. But now it appears to be, unequivocally, the case.There are many ways of telling the tale ... There are many different sides to every story ...The White Rock stands, ancient and sacred, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Four people, across four centuries, each navigating ruptures to the world they know, are irresistibly drawn to it.A British writer travels in 2020 with her husband and young daughter to give thanks for the birth of their child. She looks to the White Rock for answers, even as her faith in her marriage, and the future itself, is unravelling.An American rock star in 1969 is in the final act of his self-destruction. On the run from the law, from his rabid fans and an America burning with the fever of the Vietnam War, he washes up at the edge of Mexico, hoping to lose, or maybe find himself.A Yoeme girl is torn from her homeland at the turn of the twentieth century and taken by force to the coast. As her future is recast in the name of progress and power, she turns to the stories of her people, to resist, and to survive.And in 1775 a young Spanish naval officer, preparing to set sail from the White Rock to continue the conquest of the Pacific coast, appears to lose his grip on reality, with far-reaching and fatal consequences.And as they each find themselves at the end of the story they have lived by, their tales echo, breathtakingly, through time . . .___________________'So bold and wild, but controlled and fierce. It reminded me of Cloud Atlas, but it's very much itself. Stunning' Russell T. Davies, writer of It's A Sin'Absolutely a story for our times, and a fiercely important one, too' Clover Stroud, author of The Red of my Blood'I loved it . . . It is full of wisdom, intricate and emotional, and it will linger in my head for a long time' Dave Haslam, author of Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor

In a spellbinding narrative of sacrifice and survival, chaos and connection, four characters are caught up in the tides of history over three centuries and drawn to the sacred White Rock of San Blas off the coast of Mexico. In 2020 an Englishwoman travels to give thanks for her child, a singer in 1969 runs from the law, from his rabid fans and an America burning with the fever of the Vietnam War, two Yoeme sisters are torn from their homeland at the start of the twentieth century, and in 1775 a Spanish Lieutenant prepares to set sail from the White Rock to continue the conquest of the Pacific coast.The White Rock is a breathtaking novel about what happens when the stories we have lived by can no longer keep us safe.

Brought to you by Penguin.FROM THE AUTHOR OF EXPECTATIONThe Brooke family are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home – twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone – to bury Philip: husband, father and the blinding sun around which they have all orbited for as long as they can remember.Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, has dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defence against the coming climate catastrophe. Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn. Each believes their father has given them his blessing, setting them on a collision course with each other.Isa has long suspected that her father thought only of himself, and hopes to seek out her childhood love, who still lives on the estate, to discover whether it is her feelings for him that are creating the fault lines in her marriage.And then there is Clara, who arrives in their midst from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture all the dreams on which they’ve built their lives.''Superb … Anna Hope engages, head-on, with some of the most urgent and challenging issues facing the world today, and transforms them into spellbinding family drama'' Jonathan Coe‘Beautiful . . . As provocative as it is tender’ Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace‘The English country house novel reimagined for our times ... Exceptionally well-drawn’ Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground‘A book that asks important questions about legacy – familial, historical and global – and which seeks to answer them with delicate insight and beautiful prose’ Elizabeth Day‘Hauntingly beautiful . . . This is a novel I will return to again and again’ Louisa Adjoa Parker‘Albion balances the reality of who the English were against the hope of who we might become’ Richard Beard, author of The Day That Went Missing© Anna Hope 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Expectation by Anna Hope, read by Vinette Robinson.Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry – and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends.Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life? EXPECTATION is a novel of the highs and lows of friendship – how it can dip, dive and rise again. It is also about finding your way: as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a rebel. Most of all, it explores that liminal space between expectation and reality, the place – full of dreams, desires and pain – in which we all live our lives.

Hannah, Cate och Lissa är unga, färgstarka och oskiljaktiga. De bor i East End i London och deras tillvaro genomsyras av konst, aktivism, romantiska äventyr och känslan av att ha hela livet framför sig. De är fulla av liv och energi. De är bästa vänner.

Tio år senare har livet inte riktigt blivit som de förväntade sig. Istället befinner de sig mitt bland spillrorna av misslyckade karriärer, IVF-försök och svalnande äktenskap. Alla tre längtar efter något de andra har. Alla tre brottas med samma fråga: Hur lever man ett lyckligt ochmeningsfullt liv?

"Förväntan" är en roman om vänskapens toppar och dalar, hur den kan tappa fart men sedan komma tillbaka starkare än någonsin. Om kärlek, systerskap och frågeställningar som definierar en hel generation. Med blixtrande intelligens och knivskarp blick utforskar Anna Hope gränslandet mellan förhoppningar och verklighet – en plats full av drömmar, längtan och smärta – där vi alla lever våra liv.

När ingenting blev som man hade tänkt sig  

Hannah, Cate och Lissa är unga, färgstarka och oskiljaktiga. De bor i East End i London och deras tillvaro genomsyras av konst, aktivism, romantiska äventyr och känslan av att ha hela livet framför sig. De är fulla av liv och energi. De är bästa vänner.   

Tio år senare har livet inte riktigt blivit som de förväntade sig. Istället befinner de sig mitt bland spillrorna av misslyckade karriärer och svalnande äktenskap. Alla tre längtar efter det som någon av de andra har. Alla tre frågar sig samma sak: Hur lever man ett meningsfullt liv?   

Förväntan är en roman om vänskapens toppar och dalar, hur den kan tappa fart bara för att sedan komma tillbaka starkare än någonsin. Om att hitta sin egen väg framåt. Den utforskar det där gränslandet mellan förväntningar och verkligheten en plats full av drömmar, längtan och smärta där vi alla lever våra liv.   

"Anna Hopes prosa är så skicklig, handlingen så noggrant och fängslande utformad." - The Guardian   

"Hope skriver kraftfullt såväl som lyriskt. Hon är lika skicklig på att frammana både karaktärernas emotionella tillstånd och deras fysiska förnimmelser." - The Irish Times   

Anna Hope bor med sin familj i Kent. Hon har tidigare studerat vid Oxford, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, samt har en magister i kreativt skrivande från Birkbeck. Hon har skrivit två historiska romaner: Vakna (2014) och The Ballroom (2016). Förväntan är hennes första roman som utspelar sig i nutid.