Meet Lisa. Smart, bookish, an only child.





Having navigated school and adolescence - mainly under the influence of the Brontës and Jane Austen - she goes to college and falls in love with Eric, a fellow student, whose ambition pushes him towards a summer work placement in NY and then a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. But it's Lisa who helps him, who may have to follow him if she wants their relationship to have a chance, and who could be compromising her own ambitions and friendships in the process.





From the author of The Rest of Our Lives, Starting Out is a richly relatable story about growing up, and how it doesn't end with childhood.



Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. His novels include Either Side of Winter, You Don't Have to Live Like This and The Sidekick. In 2013 Granta selected him as one of their Best of Young British Novelists and in 2015 he won the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His novel The Rest of Our Lives was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. He lives in London.