Returning to print after a break of some nine years, it has been sobering how tough it is for a new literary novel to gain attention. Since I was last published, books pages in the press have shrunk markedly, and the sheer volume of titles appearing overwhelms the space available. It has been interesting and heartening, then, to find Sister Sebastian’s Library nosing its way into the light in a number of places. A surge in sales followed a profile of me in the British Medical Journal, published the same weekend that the Guardian included the book in a round-up of titles that might have received greater initial attention. Most pleasing of all, though, was Buckinghamshire libraries’ inclusion of Sister Sebastian’s Library as one of their ‘hidden gems’ of 2016.

The world of literature has a striking number of novelists who are also doctors. You can read my recently published Guardian article exploring the link between literature and medicine here.

It’s always a bit nerve-wracking, waiting to see what reviews might come in. Today saw publication of the first review in the national press, the Daily Mail describing Sister Sebastian’s Library as a ‘gripping, evocative novel’, and praising its tackling ‘big ideas such as the complex relationship between faith and identity’. The reviewer wasn’t entirely on board with the ending, which, beyond a ‘tantalising suggestion of rebirth’, is left open – some people like their stories neatly wrapped up, but literary fiction is the place where art can most closely emulate real life, something the novel deliberates tries to do. You can read the full review here, just below the write up for Rachel Cusk’s new novel (which also sounds a cracker!)