The Quality of Knowing is Tom Saunders' latest novel published on 17 August 2021.
The heat was unimaginable, the green of the countryside burnt to a dusty brown. Met Office records had been equalled and exceeded. Gardeners everywhere mourned the wilting of their best blooms and grew nostalgic for rain and resentful of hosepipe bans. Deliveries of sun-block and sunglasses failed to keep pace with the soaring temperatures. The neglected Victorian seaside resorts were crowded again. Along the seafronts, fish and chips, hot-dogs and burgers were being watched over by perspiring vendors and served to holiday-makers madly braving the midday sun under skies of Continental blue. While out on the piers and down on the beaches, ice-cream cones melted in seconds in the heat, tiny children licking their fingers, their faces bearded with white.
The main character is driving back home to the house he grew up in, and back with his mother and the ghost of his older sister.
