Making It: A Novel

Isobel´s life is small: just her, her mum, and her pet chinchilla, Abigail, in their council flat on the Kentish coast. After mental health troubles in her teens, Issy, now twenty-eight, has kept things that way on purpose, only deviating from routine when her part-time job at a paint-your-own pottery studio demands it, or when she´s inspired to create art of Abigail: knitted Abigails, sculptural Abigails, delicately rendered paintings of Abigail. When the Abigails earn the attention of famous artist and reality TV star Elizabeth Staggs, Issy is awestruck and a little alarmed. These emotions compound when Elizabeth makes Issy an unexpected offer: move to London and work for a year shadowing Elizabeth as she produces her hit arts documentary series. Terrified but determined, Issy agrees, and soon finds herself sharing a flat with a crew of boisterous roommates who welcome her into their queer enclave and attempt to mentor her in the city´s wide world of romantic possibilities. Issy can´t help but wish that one roommate-gorgeous and cool aspiring actress, Robin-might make her mentorship a bit more hands on...even while, at work, she struggles under the guidance of Elizabeth´s harsh and exacting young producer, Aubrey. But when Elizabeth seizes on Issy´s idea to structure the upcoming season around a group of outsider artists, Issy finds both her work and love lives growing more complicated by the day, whether she´s ready or not. Making It is a nuanced and life affirming look at living with depression and of finding, as we all deserve to, self-acceptance, community, and love.