Natural Disaster
'Hilarious, brilliant, utterly exhilarating’ (Monica Ali)
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Natural Disaster
Narrated by:
Katherine Parkinson
Pre-order for $37.98
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Narrated by:
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Katherine Parkinson
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By:
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Lisa Owens
About this listen
'Hilarious, brilliant, utterly exhilarating' MONICA ALI
'Eminently readable, recognisable and reassuring. It's fantastic' JESSIE BURTON
'Lisa Owens asks what it is to be a mother - and this is the answer. I absolutely loved it' LUCY DIAMOND
'Very funny and very, very relatable' STYLIST, 2026 BEST FICTION PICKS
'A thunderously good novel' NATHAN FILER
One perfect day. A million catastrophes.
For weeks, she has been saying it will be their special day. One last, perfect day with her children before she returns to work after maternity leave.
What's the worst that can happen?
Unfolding across 24 hours, Natural Disaster is a propulsive, darkly funny and sharply observed novel about the absurd, frustrating, hilarious, precarious, bittersweet, sometimes astonishing challenge - literal, existential - of being a woman, a mother, a wife, a person for one single, entire day.
'Heartbreakingly astute and wincingly relatable, Natural Disaster is also the funniest novel I've read in years' CLAIRE POWELL, author of At the Table
'Brilliant and funny and all so searingly, hilariously true. A genuinely dazzling novel. And there is so much love in it too' DAVID WHITEHOUSE, author of Saltwater Mansions
'Destined to become a classic' JESSICA STANLEY, author of CONSIDER YOURSELF KISSED
'I loved it. What a perfect depiction of early motherhood, womanhood, and love' OLIVIA POTTS, author of A Half Baked Idea
'I absolutely adored it. A masterfully drawn portrait of modern motherhood, hilarious and harrowing by turns' EMMA HUGHES, author of It's Complicated
'Generous, funny, heartbreaking and clever - a parenting caper with profound emotional clarity. I loved it' LIZZY STEWART, author of Alison©2026 Lisa Owens
Critic Reviews
Gorgeously captures what it's like to be a mother. Very funny and very, very relatable
I absolutely loved it . . . A forensic, agonisingly relatable account of the highs and lows and in-betweens of one whole ordinary day in a life with two small children. Funny, dark, absurd, pin-sharp, insightful, propulsive, unputdownable (Nina Stibbe)
Lisa Owens lays bare the pains, perils and joys of motherhood, all captured over the course of a single day. Hilarious, brilliant, utterly exhilarating
I absolutely loved it. The joy, the madness, the pettiness, love and ingenuity of a day with two small children is brilliantly observed. Lisa Owens asks what it is to be a mother - and this is the answer. Perceptively, tenderly told, every page provokes humour, recognition, great empathy and often all three at once. The ordinary becomes the extraordinary in Lisa Owens' writing
Eminently readable, recognisable and reassuring. I read this in a day. One Dalloway-esque day, a million catastrophes, the intense highs and lows of being a mother, a partner, a woman in this world. It's fantastic
Deeply relatable and unbearably tense, Lisa Owen's brilliant Natural Disaster explores all the complexity and tenderness of parenthood in Lisa's singular voice - crisp, witty and full of heart. The high priestess of minute observation!
With Natural Disaster Lisa Owens pioneers a new genre: the white-knuckle domestic. A compulsive, agonising, and hilarious anatomy of modern motherhood
Utterly exhilarating - every page blazes with truth, hilarity, perception and love. Natural Disaster is destined to become a classic (Jessica Stanley, author of CONSIDER YOURSELF KISSED)
Heartbreakingly astute and wincingly relatable, Natural Disaster is also the funniest novel I've read in years
Lisa Owens mines gold from the smallest details of life. Natural Disaster is a thunderously good novel - the kind that makes you rock with laughter, shed a genuine tear, and immediately think of which friends you're going to lend it to first
Generous, funny, heartbreaking and clever - a parenting caper with profound emotional clarity. I loved it (Lizzy Stewart, author of ALISON)
Read this book. I can't stop talking about it. I laughed out loud on almost every page (it's the funniest book I've read in years), and I was in tears as I finished it. It's so beautifully (and wittily) observed, the most accurate representation of the wonder and horror of contemporary motherhood and marriage. What a writer
Brilliant and funny and all so searingly, hilariously true. A genuinely dazzling novel. And there is so much love in it too
I did not give Lisa Owens permission to look inside my very soul but she seems to have done it anyway. Smart, wise and real
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