The Catch
Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. As infants they were adopted into different families, Clara sent to live with a successful, upper-class couple, and Dempsey with a sullen, unaffectionate city councilor. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life--the very life, it seems, she might have had if the girls had never been born.
As with most things, Clara and Dempsey cannot see eye to eye on the confounding appearance of this woman. Clara, a celebrity author with a penchant for excessive drinking and one-night stands, is all too willing to welcome the confident and temperamental Serene into her home. But cloistered Dempsey, who makes a modest living doing menial data entry work from the confines of her apartment, is dubious of the whole situation, believing this all to be the insidious ruse of a con woman. Clashing over this stranger who burrows deeper and deeper into their lives, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts--together.
In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that women must make for self-actualization. The result is a marvel of a debut novel that boldly asks, "How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?"
Reviews
"The Catch is a weird, wild, and wonderful book about two sisters pulled back into each other's orbit by a woman who might be their vanished mother - or a total fake. A story about Black womanhood, messy families, and what it really means to choose yourself, Yrsa's writing is bold, poetic, and full of bite. This book seriously doesn't play by the rules - and that's the magic of it." - Samantha de Haas, Service95 [Dua Lipa's book club]
"Anticipate intricate mother-daughter dynamics, conversations about privilege and mental health, and plot twists that will keep you guessing until the very end." - Taylor Honebeek, The Mirror
“I love it because you can't put it down. You have to know what's happening next, and if what happens next is really happening” - Dr. Ebony Lumumba
"I was immediately drawn to Yrsa Daley-Ward's novel, The Catch, because of its themes of identity, self-actualization, motherhood, sisterhood, and the role women play or are expected to play in their families." - Jiji Ugboma, Cleaver-ish
"In her fiction debut, Daley-Ward explores family in an enthrallingly poetic way. She puts readers into the moments in between madness and lets them move throughout the family through moments big and small. The Catch is expertly plotted with language to match." - Debutiful
"The way the photograph has been manipulated into an ephemeral pattern is so engrossing here." - Emily Temple, Lit Hub
"A rich and risky text...[It's] not just the metaphysical play that stands out; Daley-Ward's prose also shines from the start...By harnessing both a poet's heart and attention to language as well as a fresh ear for millennial humor and drama, Daley-Ward has penned a metaphysical experiment on grief, trauma, family and longing that holds all the excitement of a big summer read." - Danez Smith, New York Times Book Review
"There isn't a box big enough to contain this debut novel. Poet, writer, and actress Daley-Ward ventured into the world of fiction and created a genre of her own . . . In the same way that Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody cycles through a ballad, opera, and hard rock, Daley-Ward melds surrealism and sf with contemporary fiction and a sprinkling of titillating romance. Along the way, she explores the many dimensions of Black female identity, with a special focus on how Black female mental health is often ignored or mistreated. In the first title in Liveright's Well-Read Black Girls Books series, chosen by WRBG founder Glory Edim, Daley-Ward illuminates the complex workings of the mind in a tale filled with intrigue and speculation that will leaves readers guessing long after the final pages." - Booklist, starred review
"Totally original, entirely compelling and astonishingly well crafted, The Catch solidifies Yrsa Daley-Ward as one of Britain's best and boldest voices. A dark and lyrical debut that's well worth the wait." - Yomi Adegoke, author of The List
"A thrilling exploration of the sacrifices women are forced to make for their families." - TIME, Most Anticipated Books of 2025
"From one of my favorite living writers, The Catch is a slippery shapeshifting delight full of shadows and elastic time, illusions and distorted mirrors. Yrsa's work in this novel is fluorescently dark and winding; brilliant in its investigation of blood, cycles, refractions, and meaning." - Eloghosa Osunde, author of Vagabonds!
"Yrsa Daley-Ward is back with another gut-punch of a book, and this time, it's an intoxicating story about love, longing, and self-discovery. If you love messy, complicated, deliciously emotional stories, this one's calling your name." - Glory Edim, TODAY.com
"Poet Daley-Ward (Bone) makes her fiction debut with an engrossing and off-kilter tale of twin sisters and their mother, a Black woman who left them when they were infants. The dreamy novel is propelled by searching questions about how to be a mother and how to find fulfillment. It's a singular family drama." - Publishers Weekly
"Yrsa's work is like holding the truth in your hands. It sweats and breathes before you. A glorious living thing." - Florence Welch, Florence + the Machine