What does it mean to create family outside the lines of convention?
Join award-winning author Saba Sams, selected for Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2023, as she presents her electrifying debut novel Gunk, an exploration of love, desire, and the unexpected paths to motherhood.
Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. She spends her nights serving shots and watching, from behind the bar, as Leon flirts with students on the dancefloor.
But then Leon hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar–and her arrival jolts Jules awake for the first time in years. When Nim discovers she's pregnant, Jules agrees to help. As the months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing, it emerges that Nim has her own unexpected gifts to give.
Now, alone in her small flat, Jules is holding a baby, just twenty-four hours old, who still smells of Nim. But no one knows where Nim is, or if she's coming back. What could the future–for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby–possibly look like?
Interviewed by author and critic, Madeleine Feeny, this evening promises to be as vibrant and unexpected as the novel itself. Discover how the messiest parts of life can become the most meaningful.
"A novel both quietly devastating and shimmeringly, acutely, observed" Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure nominated for the 2018 Man Booker Prize

The ‘stream and book’ package includes a unique ticket for the stream, and a copy of Gunk (RRP £16.99) deliverable to any UK or international address.
The event will initially be broadcast on 12 May at 6.30pm UK time. It will be available to view up to two weeks after the event has ended and can be accessed Worldwide. If you live in a time zone that does not suit the initial broadcast time you can watch it at any point after the initial showing for two weeks.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected].