Gunk

Selected as a 2025 book to look out for by the Guardian, Sunday Times, Irish Times, independent.co.uk, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Service95

‘Raw, original and provoking, Saba Sams is Britain's brightest debut novelist’ Vogue
‘An immersive story about love and the softening borders around what family can be’ Sheena Patel
'A joy to read' The Times
‘An intimate and tender exploration of love's possibilities’ Sophie Mackintosh
'Raw, powerful and beautiful' Observer
‘A nuanced exploration of friendship, queerness and love’ Jessica Andrews
‘I loved this’ Nicola Dinan

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?

Raw, exhilarating, tender and wise, Gunk is an electrifying debut novel exploring love and desire, safety and destruction, chaos and control – and family in all its forms.

Saba Sams made waves with Send Nudes ... Now the 28-year-old author has written her first novel, about the bond between two women from different generations - and what happens when a baby arrives in the mix SUNDAY TIMES, The 40 books to look out for in 2025 — the critics’ picks
A writer clearly worth watching ... Sams’s prose is fresh as new paint ... Raw, powerful and beautiful in the plain-spokenness of a life cracking open to enfold a new being OBSERVER
Bold, cheeky and visceral ... A very modern novel by a very exciting debut novelist VOGUE, 10 Of The Biggest Contenders For Book Of The Summer
At the heart of Gunk is a profound message about the insufficiency of the nuclear family, and a suggestion of possible alternatives. It’s a radical thought, one that Sams is well placed to articulate, and she does so with tenderness GUARDIAN, Book of the Day
Young motherhood reimagined by an exciting new literary voice ... A warm, often funny novel about an unconventional partnership ... It’s a joy to read THE TIMES
Masterful, very original and moving … Tackles these big, amorphous things with such easy elegance … A very visceral book: the stickiness of the club the raw animality of birth, the milky yearnings of the baby … I love the way she describes things -- PANDORA SYKES
A hotly anticipated debut ... The perfect depiction of nights out, complete with sours shots and sticky floors independent.co.uk, Best new books to read
Saba Sams depicts a love growing between two women that is romantic, at times explosive, and evades a label - an exploration of a chosen family that sits in uncertainty TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Sams’ poignant tale parks issues of identity as essentially unknowable, and simply glories in the mess of life FINANCIAL TIMES, Best new debut novels
In Sams’s fictional worlds, the edges between female friendship and desire are as smudged as lipstick after a long night partying ... Sams writes in the disarming voice of a bored teenager with a gift for one-liners and sudden moments of poetry, and it is not hard to see why her work has caused such a stir GUARDIAN
A thoughtful, knotty investigation into motherhood, love and belonging. Marie Claire, The Only Books You'll Want in Your Beach Bag
An elusive, idiosyncratic book that I would not want to have been written any differently. It deals in relationships that literary conventions were not built to hold ... I wish Jules and Nim the best of luck -- NAOISE DOLAN IRISH TIMES
A fresh look at unconventional relationships and chosen family by the author of the award-winning story collection Send Nudes GUARDIAN, the books to look forward to in 2025
Imbued with an affecting authenticity of feeling, this is an involving exploration of life, love and family forged beyond labels by one of Gen Z’s sharpest observers DAILY MAIL
Gunk, the scuzzy nightclub. Gunk, the shining, beautiful novel. This exceptional exploration of love and possibility remained with me long after I'd finished reading -- WENDY ERSKINE
A literary wunderkind ... Acutely observed and tight in focus HARPERS BAZAAR, Five debut female authors to read in 2025
An intimate and tender exploration of love’s possibilities, of the shapes it can find and create inside people, of how it is always surprising us. Its’s a novel both quietly devastating and shimmeringly, acutely, observed -- SOPHIE MACKINTOSH
Compulsively readable, intelligent and strange, Gunk is a beautiful and original exploration of what it means to be in kinship with other people. This is a striking and special book -- OISÍN McKENNA
From the writer of Send Nudes comes the novel Gunk. Yes, we are obsessed with the title. The novel explores the multi-layered relationship between two women, Jules and Nim COSMOPOLITAN, The 25 books we can't wait to read in 2025
This tender fictional debut by celebrated essayist Sams looks at blended families and nontraditional life choices. Prepare for one of the best birth scenes written on the page along with an original and ageless relationship between two women, Jules and Nim, who meet each other behind the bar at Brighton nightclub Gunk. This will make you think differently about parenting, friendships and the goals we set in life ELLE, The Cult Books We Can’t Wait To Read In 2025
An electrifying debut novel ... We loved Sams’ first book Send Nudes ... Gunk feels as though it will be the next talked-about step into Sams’ exploration of womanhood – and we can’t wait to join the discussion SERVICE95
Saba Sams’s short story collection, Send Nudes, caused a stir upon its release in 2022. Since then, she’s won the BBC National Short Story Award and been named one of Granta’s best young British novelists, so it’s safe to say that expectations are high for her debut novel. Gunk is set around a scuzzy student nightclub in Brighton and explores the tangled mess of relationships that emerge between exes Jules and Leon, and 19-year-old bar staffer Nim independent.co.uk, The best books to look out for in 2025
An immersive story about love and the softening borders around what family can be -- SHEENA PATEL
When this landed, I immediately abandoned all other books and dove head-first ... Following two women whose connection sits somewhere between friendship and chosen family, we’re taken through the timeline of their relationship when one takes off without a word after giving birth. I read the book over a weekend and found it incredibly moving REFINERY29
I loved this ... A really delicate portrait of motherhood, the limits we (rightly or wrongly) place on our loved ones, and how those most willing to care for others may be the most ready to deny care for themselves -- NICOLA DINAN
Saba Sams finds beauty in grit and dirt. She elevates sticky dance floors, dirty bedsits and scuzzy seaside towns, drawing attention to the meaning our lives make from within the mundane. Gunk is a nuanced exploration of friendship, queerness and love, challenging our perceptions of what it means to be a mother, and what it means to care -- JESSICA ANDREWS
A vital, glowing, addictive book. I inhaled it; loved it; didn't want it to end -- LUCY JONES
Gunk is a deliciously offbeat dance through motherhood, romance and friendship. Like a great short story, there's hope and freedom in its singularity. I'll read everything Saba Sams writes -- ANNA METCALFE
Gunk is the first novel from Saba Sams (Send Nudes), exploring love and family. 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 Brighton IRISH TIMES
A beautifully constructed and perfectly written novel that shows there are no rules and no limits on a) love and b) what we might create (what we might birth) if we out aside old stuff and open ourselves up to the new. So special -- JESSICA STANLEY
Praise for Saba Sams: Saba Sams is a fresh new voice in fiction, wry and sharp and raw -- EMMA CLINE
Saba Sams’s unsettling, full-throated fiction captures girls and young women on the brink of change GUARDIAN, Books of the Year
Spare, sharp and empathetic, brimful of emotion, energy and empathy DAILY MAIL
Sams digs into the chaos, euphoria and menace of sexual attraction, friendship and family with bravery and wit. The balance her prose strikes between observation and empathy is remarkable, and its rhythms irresistible -- CHRIS POWER
Exploring the uneven, hazardous terrain between girlhood and womanhood, Sams expertly reveals its inherent contradictions – the rawness and intense vulnerability of teetering on the edge of something new coupled with the power and euphoria that come with self-discovery … Sams’ unflinching observation yet tender empathy for each of her characters sets her apart as a bold new talent STYLIST, Books of the Week
The earthy resilience and joie de vivre of these stories make for an exhilarating debut ... Sams joins the ranks of writers such as Megan Nolan and Frances Leviston with these acute portraits of the fragile intimacies and euphoric moments snatched by a generation of women coming of age into a precarious future ... In spare, rhythmic sentences, this exhilarating collection captures the light and dark of negotiating relationships, solitude, sexuality and loss GUARDIAN
An ode to the women you drunkenly befriend in club toilets, Send Nudes is an astonishing selection of short stories charting the ebb and flow of girlhood. Saba Sams' authoritative yet witty tone of voice shines through, rendering this one of the most exciting books to come out of 2022 GLAMOUR, Books of the Year 2022
Girlhood, womanhood and everything in between. Ten glorious stories – set in clubs at closing time, pub toilets, sweaty music festivals and hazy beach holidays – of young, feral women who are navigating the complexities of growing up, friendships and truly living in their own bodies REFINERY29, The Ultimate Gen Z Book Guide For Surviving 2022
A visceral and compulsive writer, Saba Sams’ ten short stories slalom through the pulsing veins of romance, rejection, and resistance to a world that attempts to box in every young woman. Painfully familiar feelings are dredged up, but it’s so utterly compelling it can be consumed in one sitting. I have fallen in love with Sams’ feral women, found in club toilets, on beach towels, in ferocious friendships, navigating tense family dynamics and body politics AnOTHER
Saba Sams’ writing is dark and glittering. Her collection twists the world on its axis and filters it through an unsettling light. Her precise, wry sentences and sticky, uncompromising characters got beneath my skin -- JESSICA ANDREWS
Unfalteringly different, ensnaring, often frightening stories about characters caught between childhood and adulthood, who are feeling out their boundaries, desires and limits for the first time. Sams’ writing is intoxicating -- CLAIRE KOHDA, author of Woman, Eating

Saba Sams was raised in Brighton and now lives in London. She was selected for Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2023 and The Sunday Times’ Young Power List in 2025. Her short story collection Send Nudes was awarded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2022 and was shortlisted for the University of Swansea International Dylan Thomas Prize 2023. The story ‘Blue 4eva’ from the collection was awarded the BBC National Short Story Award. Send Nudes was selected as a book of the year by the Guardian, Stylist, Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Evening Standard, Irish Independent, AnOther, Foyles and bookshop.org, and was named a Sunday Times paperback of the year in 2023.

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