The First House

The long-awaited second novel from the Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Burnt Sugar — published 24 July 2026.

A woman's husband walks into their bedroom one evening and tells her that he wants a divorce. She is stunned. They have always had a happy marriage — an almost perfect marriage.

In the following days, marooned with two young daughters in a hostile suburb, the woman starts coming apart. As she sifts through the ruins of a shared life, she begins to notice the warning signs she chose not to see the first time around. She wanders deep into her own mind, where marital scenes intermingle with old myths of headless women and vengeful goddesses. Over the course of a single summer, she is splitting like an insect in its chrysalis — liquifying, reforming, stretching her new antennae toward the light.

Stiletto-sharp and darkly hypnotic, The First House is a novel about unhappy families: about the bloody battlefield of the home, and the enduring threat posed by those closest to us.

Praise

“Each page is sharp, piercing, and totally defiant of the expected.” — Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize–winning author of Shuggie Bain

“A remarkable, haunting novel.” — Deepa Anappara

About the author

Avni Doshi's debut Burnt Sugar (first published in India as Girl in White Cotton) was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, longlisted for the Women's Prize, and translated into twenty-six languages. She lives in Dubai.