LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE.

WINNER OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS ENCORE PRIZE.

A ‘Best of Summer’ pick in Vogue.

A ‘Best book to take on summer holiday’ in The Times.

A Good Housekeeping ‘Book Club’ selection.

Selected as a 2025 Book of the Year in The Times, The Critic, News24 and NPR.

International editions: 66thand2nd (Italy); Asteroide (Spain); Dar Taksheel (Arabic); Eclecta (Catalan); Editoria Instante (Brazil); Eksmo (Russia); Hakusui-Sha (Japan); Luchterhand (Germany); Olimpus (Turkey).

In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago.

When Dawn Bishop was sixteen, she left her home in Trinidad and journeyed across the sea to Venezuela. There, she gave birth to a baby girl and returned to Trinidad alone.

Dawn tried to carry on with her life: a move to England, a marriage, two sons and a divorce. But she never stopped thinking of her daughter and of what might have been.

Forty years later, a woman gets in touch on an internet forum, claiming that she might be her long-lost daughter. Dawn dares to hope that this may be a way back to her past. Could she finally give form to all the love and care a mother has left to offer?

Read an excerpt.

“A tender and emotionally complex exploration of what it means to love, to lose, and to long for connection... Adam excels at capturing the quiet ache of a life shaped by what has been lost... The portrayal of this grief—long, low, and lived—is one of the book’s great strengths. Readers won’t find tear-jerking scenes of reunion here, but rather an honest, contemplative portrait of what it means to live with absence... Claire Adam proves herself once again as a writer of great emotional intelligence, capable of giving voice to characters whose pain is often too quiet to name.”

—WOMAN & HOME
“Love Forms is a novel of cumulative force. There's no catharsis or revelation, just the quiet pressure of the past pushing against the present. As the title suggests, it's an examination of two intertwined meanings: the varied forms love takes, and the complex, often strange processes by which love itself forms within us. Claire Adam brings a refreshing seriousness and sincerity to these mysteries.”

—RUBY EASTWOOD, THE IRISH TIMES
“Claire Adam’s 2019 novel Golden Child was her debut, but it felt like the work of a master. It was tender, ravishing, shattering – you believed every word of it. The book had an effortless narrative authority that most first-time novelists would kill for. […] Love Forms is every bit as alive and convincing, and returns us to Trinidad, with its potent fizz of colour, heat and political instability. The final pages, which unfold at the family’s beach house on Tobago, are as gripping as any thriller, and the ending, when it comes, feels as right as it is devastating.”

—JULIE MYERSON, THE GUARDIAN
“From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother's love. It's an absolute triumph.”

—SARA COLLINS
“Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.”

—MONIQUE ROFFEY
“An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.”

—CLAIRE KILROY
“A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.'

—ROMESH GUNESEKERA
“The most beautiful, heartbreaking ending I’ve read since Never Let Me Go.”

—JULIANNE PACHICO
“Adam's writing has a hypnotic force. Love Forms is astonishing, remarkable in its slow, urgent unfolding – and in the almost palpable presence of its narrator.”

—CHETNA MAROO
“A quietly devastating masterpiece. I rarely cry but I howled. It deserves to win all the prizes.”

—MARIAN KEYES
“A beautiful story . . . explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love.”

—AMANDA PETERS
“An unforgettable heartache of a novel."

—VOGUE
“ With its rich creation of all the elements that make up a life, Love Forms achieves a sort of alchemy. Even when there isn’t much happening — accounts of her sons’ jobs; reflections on her marriage — it all goes to nourish the reader’s understanding of Dawn’s character. She feels real. A book that started by tantalising the reader ultimately delivers satisfaction. Dawn, in her quest to plug the hole in her life, makes us ask what success would look like anyway. To find her daughter would be an ending: but life — this life, the only life we have — is all about continuing.”

—JOHN SELF, FINANCIAL TIMES
“Reads like a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.”

—THE TIMES
“Though Ms. Adam is a different sort of stylist, she produces echoes of Jean Rhys.”

—THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Delicately written and emotionally devastating... It's a tender, tense reverie, elegantly capturing Dawn's secret sorrow”

—MAIL ON SUNDAY
“Adam is a thoughtful writer and this is a soulful, unflashy narrative... a reflective novel that sensitively explores love and motherhood.”

—ALEX PEAKE-TOMKINSON, SPECTATOR
“Adam shines in her characterization of the Bishop family, their fascinating dynamics, brutal honesty, and most of all, their enduring love for one another. The core of this poignant novel is the powerful mother-child bond and its ability to endure long after losing a child.”

—LILLIAN DABNEY, BOOKLIST
“In the gripping and heart-rending latest from Adam (Golden Child), a woman searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption decades earlier… Readers won’t want to put this down.”

—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
“A must-read for anyone who has been a mother, has had a mother, or has loved in that fierce, complicated way.”

—KATRIONA O’SULLIVAN
“A moving story of a mother's love and longing... Love Forms pulls you deep into the landscape of memories and emotions as a mother searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption. Claire Adam's prose is lit from within.”

—CHARIMAINE WILKERSON
“A wonderful novel -- the story is so beautifully told, the writing so assured and compelling, and it achieves a remarkable sense of intimacy.”

—DANIELLE MCLAUGHLIN

A personal essay by Claire in Dua Lipa’s newsletter, Service95, about research for Love Forms.

Audio interview. BBC Radio 4, Front Row with Kirsty Wark: We hear from two novelists whose books are centred on motherhood and adoption, Claire Adam and Yrsa Dailey Ward. (30 July 2025)

BBC Radio 4, Front Row: Literary critic Alex Clark examines the Booker Prize longlist which was announced today. (29 July 2025)

A piece by Claire Adam in People magazine, about the artwork on the cover of the US edition of Love Forms. (28 July 2025)

Audio interview with Claire Adam on Little Atoms podcast.

Claire reads from Love Forms at the Faber Members Fiction Showcase.

Interview with Claire Adam in The Irish Times. (paywalled; June 2025)

Interview with Claire Adam in The Observer. (June 2025)

Meet the quiet author - who’s got a champion in Sarah Jessica Parker. The Times feature interview. (paywalled; June 2025)

Audio interview with Claire on This Mama is Lit podcast.

Love Forms features on Faber Journal (December 2024)

Golden Child in this Sunday Times (paywalled) feature: Sarah Jessica Parker as a Booker judge — why not? She has great taste.

Available here (UK)

Available here (USA)

“From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother's love. It's an absolute triumph.”

“Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.”

“An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.”

“A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.'

“The most beautiful, heartbreaking ending I’ve read since Never Let Me Go.”

“Adam's writing has a hypnotic force. Love Forms is astonishing, remarkable in its slow, urgent unfolding – and in the almost palpable presence of its narrator.”

“A quietly devastating masterpiece. I rarely cry but I howled. It deserves to win all the prizes.”

“A beautiful story . . . explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love.”

“An unforgettable heartache of a novel."

“Reads like a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.”

“Though Ms. Adam is a different sort of stylist, she produces echoes of Jean Rhys.”

“Delicately written and emotionally devastating... It's a tender, tense reverie, elegantly capturing Dawn's secret sorrow”

“Adam is a thoughtful writer and this is a soulful, unflashy narrative... a reflective novel that sensitively explores love and motherhood.”

“Adam shines in her characterization of the Bishop family, their fascinating dynamics, brutal honesty, and most of all, their enduring love for one another. The core of this poignant novel is the powerful mother-child bond and its ability to endure long after losing a child.”

“In the gripping and heart-rending latest from Adam (Golden Child), a woman searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption decades earlier… Readers won’t want to put this down.”

“A must-read for anyone who has been a mother, has had a mother, or has loved in that fierce, complicated way.”

“A moving story of a mother's love and longing... Love Forms pulls you deep into the landscape of memories and emotions as a mother searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption. Claire Adam's prose is lit from within.”

“A wonderful novel -- the story is so beautifully told, the writing so assured and compelling, and it achieves a remarkable sense of intimacy.”