A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The powerful second memoir from the twice-Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home

'I just haven't stopped reading it . . . it talks so beautifully about being a woman' Billie Piper on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs

'Life falls apart. We try to get a grip and hold it together. And then we realise we don't want to hold it together . . .'

Praise for The Cost of Living:

'It is the story of every woman throughout history who has expended her love and labour on making a home that turns out to serve the needs of everyone except herself. Wonderful. Not so much a memoir as an eloquent manifesto' Guardian

'Wise, subtle and ironic, Levy's every sentence is a masterpiece of clarity and poise . . . a brilliant writer' Daily Telegraph

'A graceful and lyrical rumination on the questions, "What is a woman for? What should a woman be?" ' Tatler

'I can't think of any writer aside from Virginia Woolf who writes better about what it is to be a woman' Observer

'Extraordinary and beautiful, suffused with wit and razor sharp insights' Financial Times

'A heady, absorbing read' Evening Standard