When we first meet Patrick Boyd, he seems to be on top of things. His journal entries are full of joy. He delights especially in his son Thomas – a boy who calls him 'daddy', who fills his days with sweetness and who tells him wonderful things.

But as How Do People Stay the Same follows Patrick's journal backwards through the years, the contentment of the present is left behind and we are led to a lonelier, sadder existence. We start to understand that Patrick's life is not straightforward, but a series of loops and returns, leaps and lulls – breaking apart and reforming under the pressures of depression, love, memory and time. We start to wonder how he will ever get to that brighter future.

The result is a fearsomely real, yet gently uplifting novel – full of warmth and tenderness, as well as the exquisite prose and lacerating wit of Mark Bowles' prize-winning debut All My Precious Madness.