Switzy

The finest book yet from the bestselling author of The Girls and The Guest: an ageing man with an unreliable mind plans the final days before he flies to Switzerland

'Brilliant, exceptional... it broke my heart. A miracle of a novel' SAMANTHA HARVEY
'Sublime... completely gripping... a wonder' MARK HADDON
'Her best book yet. Completely extraordinary' DAISY JOHNSON
'A real feat... the writing really, really pops' JEM CALDER

*A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK 2026 in: BBC, Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Lit Hub, Bookstr, Glossary, Paper Trails*

A mesmerising portrait of an ageing man's last pilgrimage, from the bestselling author of The Girls and The Guest

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting.

A mystery, among many mysteries. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable.

This is what David knows: Cody, his assistant, asleep in the seat next to him, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades.

His final destination is Zurich.

David glides through hotel rooms and airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes in: the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. A summer at a school friend's house. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life.

As David's arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unravelling mind emerges, both darkly humorous and profoundly moving. Hypnotic and startlingly original, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he's relied on, vanish.

• Format: Paperback / softback
• Pages: 352
• Imprint: CHATTO & WINDUS - TRADE
• Supplier: Penguin Random House Distribution
• Subjects: Code FA (scheme 12), Code JBFV4 (scheme 93), Code 1DDF (scheme 94), Code 1DDU-GB-ESL (scheme 94), Code FBA (scheme 93), Code FXL (scheme 93), Code FXM (scheme 93), Code FXD (scheme 93), Code 5LKS (scheme 98), Code 5PMN (scheme 98), Code 1DFH-CH-X (scheme 94), award winning books; prize winning books; booker prize 2026; booker prize; new books 2026; award winning; prize winners; literary fiction; book club; books for women; new releases; sunday times bestseller; contemporary fiction; ageing; old age; switzerland; euthanasia; death; grief; books for men; new books; the guest; the girls; identity crisis; the assistant; airports; london; old man; notebook; relationships; loss; the pilgrimage; memories; daily reflections; consciousness; dark humour; mysteries of the mind; hotels