Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, this breathtaking debut novel tells the story of the most famous woman ever written out of literary history

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2021

'Seductive . . . Gorgeous' The Times
'Gives voice to one of fiction's most conspicuously absent women' i

Word has come. King Lear is dead. His three daughters too, broken in battle. But someone has survived: Lear's queen.

Though her grief and rage threaten to crack the earth open, she knows she must seek answers. Why was she exiled? What has happened to Kent, her oldest friend? And what will become of her now? To find peace she must reckon with her past and make a terrible choice - one upon which her destiny rests.

With Learwife, J.R. Thorp has created an entire world out of a void. A stunning voice, hers is one you will remember, and look out for, in the years to come