A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what
happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in
quarantine over the holidays...

It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire
Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s
elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be
joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate.
But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has
to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad,
she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and
so too should her family.

For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut
off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and
forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly
frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming
wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being
immersed in first-world problems.

As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing
restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war
correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole
family upside down.

In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and
as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing
is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to
arrive…