Name: Saba Sams - Gunk - Book Talk
Start: 2026-05-12T19:00:00+01:00
Location: Rossiter Books Malvern

Saba Sams has been described as Britain's brightest debut novelist and we are delighted to welcome her to Rossiter Books where she will talk about her electrifying debut novel Gunk which explores love and desire, chaos and control, and family in all its forms.
Gunk has been longlisted for the world’s largest and most prestigious literary prize for young writers – the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.
Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. She spends her nights serving shots and watching, from behind the bar, as Leon flirts with students on the dance floor. But then Leon hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar – and her arrival jolts Jules awake for the first time in years. When Nim discovers she’s pregnant, Jules agrees to help. As the months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing, it emerges that Nim has her own unexpected gifts to give. Now, alone in her small flat, Jules is holding a baby, just twenty-four hours old, who still smells of Nim. But no one knows where Nim is, or if she’s coming back. What could the future – for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby – possibly look like?
Saba Sams was selected for Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2023. Her short story collection Send Nudes was awarded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2022 and was shortlisted for the University of Swansea International Dylan Thomas Prize 2023. The story 'Blue 4eva' from the collection was awarded the BBC National Short Story Award.