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‘They were coming back to life. They were free and getting freer.’

The heart-breaking, soul-building new novel about the transformative power of love, from the Sunday Times-bestselling KAE TEMPEST

Rothko Taylor has washed up with the tide, back in their hometown, Edgecliff. Fifteen years since they left it behind.
The past is accelerating towards them: the skateboard kids on the high street that remind them of their teenage years, the splintered benches looking out to sea, where their mum Meg clutched her cans. The nice bit of town, where their dad Ezra tried and failed to build a happy home. And Dionne’s block. Beautiful, extraordinary Dionne, the only person who had ever looked at them and seen what was there.
Back then, overwhelmed and full of fear, they sank beneath the surface into chaos. But they made it out alive. And this time, Rothko is determined that things will be different.
A decade in the making, Having Spent Life Seeking is about family and forgiveness; redemption and atonement; desire and abandon; selfhood and community. The things we seek when we are hiding, and what finds us, if we can let ourselves be seen.

Praise for Kae Tempest

‘An authentically soothing, powerful thought-provoker’ Matt Haig

‘A truth-speaker’ Max Porter

'Powerful and merciful' Ali Smith

© Kae Tempest 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026