Winner of France’s prestigious the Prix Femina Étranger 

Shortlisted for Italy’s European Premio Strega

The beginning of a relationship is usually all about getting to know one another, sharing stories far into the night, comparing experiences, triumphs and heartaches, until we know each other inside out.

Not so for Dave and Alena. He’s from London, she’s from Siberia. They meet in a sleek Bond Street department store in the frayed heat of high summer where she’s up to no good and it’s his job to catch her. So begins an unlikely relationship between two people with pasts, with secrets, they’ve no idea how to live with — or leave behind. But despite everything they don’t have in common, all the details they won’t and can’t reveal, they still find themselves fighting with all they’ve got for a future together.

Praise for Thirst

‘It explores the lives of people not generally considered fit for literature and does so with wit and a shrewdness that makes Hudson’s subjects zing from the page.’ (Louise Welsh, The Guardian)

‘…an exquisite, stimulating mash-up…A brilliant, enthralling saga’ (Joseph Crilly, The Irish Times)

‘It’s a bleak outlook, but Hudson makes it beautiful. Heart-wrenching without being maudlin, Thirst is a novel about the scraps of hope that people find when they’re completely out of options.’ (Kaite Welsh, The Independent)

‘This is Hudson’s second novel, and it shares with her debut a real warmth for her working class and underclass characters…writing with a modern take on the hardships of 21st century living that is highly impressive.’ (Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue)

‘Funny, inventive, delightful.’ (Viv Groskop, Red Magazine 10 Best Summer Reads) 

‘Fresh and original…it’s an unsentimental love story‘ (Sam Baker, Harper’s Bazaar Best of British Reads)

“An unusual love story… a refreshing change from the plethora of middle-class novel fare that simply holds a mirror to the majority of readers” (John Harding, Daily Mail)

“Tremendously affecting… impressively unostentatious in its instinct for a common story within a city of millions that never gets heard” (Claire Allfree, Metro)

“Kerry Hudson has consolidated her position with this second novel as a writer who is prepared to face the injustices and the grimness of life, and tell of lives usually ignored… Thirst is hardly an easy summer read… but it is probably an essential one”(Lesley McDowell, Scotsman)

“A classy will-they won’t-they romance with a difference… Sheer escapism from start to finish” (Bella)

“Both funny and touching… Hudson’s debut was highly praised and this is a terrific follow-up” (Fanny, Blake, Woman & Home)

“As the last few chapters crescendo into a breathless, sob-inducing finale, Hudson marks herself out once again as a terrifically talented storyteller who, luckily for us, is here to stay” (Yasmin Sulaiman List)