To celebrate the publication of PAST PARTICIPLE, Jane Labous’ Bath Novel Award 2022 longlisted debut, we have a copy to give away by prize draw.

Prize draw terms can be found here and to enter simply send us your name and email address below by the close of 30th September 2023.

“A captivating story of murder and imperialist corruption, of friendship and motherhood and of the past haunting the present, told through the interlinking stories of two women.” – Kieran Devaney

Photo credit: Doriana Re

PAST PARTICIPLE by Jane Labous (Afsana, September 2023)

A Senegalese lawyer investigates the death of her brother, three decades earlier in Dakar, at the hands of a British diplomat’s wife.  

​Dakar, Senegal, 1987: On a rainy night after a wild party, the British ambassador’s wife, Vivienne Hughes, is involved in a car crash. Her vehicle fatally hits the motorbike of young Senegalese doctor, Aimé Tunkara. Pleading diplomatic immunity, Vivienne and her husband flee to England. 

Three decades later, Aimé’s little sister, Lily Tunkara, now a high-flying lawyer in Dakar, finds a photograph that compels her to investigate what really happened that rainy night. As Lily faces increasing hostility from the local community, she turns to Vivienne Hughes, the only remaining witness, but is either woman prepared for the truth to emerge?

Longlisted for The Bath Novel Award 2022

This novel is perfection. I am *that* obsessed with Past Participle, I want to tell everyone about it! Again, I love this novel, it’s brilliant. – Claire Strombeck, Literary Editor