This Beautiful World

Three broken people bound together by suffering, the road-trip from hell, a stage hypnotist, and a live TV show ...

Single-mum Alice is desperate to keep her son safe from harm. But sometimes it’s hard to distinguish real dangers from those her mind seems to conjure out of nowhere.

Simon, Alice’s brother, is also struggling. With a challenging job at the Suicide Prevention Centre, an aging father to care for, and a crazy sister about to implode, his sense of suffocation is growing stronger every day.

But neither of them are prepared for Crystal. Bursting into their lives with her impossible beauty and air-hostess chic, Crystal sets in motion a journey that threatens to destroy them all.

What does Crystal’s glamorous exterior conceal? Can Rick Valentine, daytime TV’s favourite hypnotist, really cure Alice’s problems? Touching and visceral, This Beautiful World explores grief, loneliness, shyness, inadequacy and obsession in a world of contrasting cultures; from England’s council estates to the diamond-edged glitter of London’s consumer elite.