The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

Eilis is an eighteen year old girl, newly arrived in London from Ireland, there to study acting.  Stephen is an established actor who is nearing forty.  They meet one night in a pub and Eilis goes home with Stephen and sleeps with him; her first time ever.  She expects that it will be a one time thing and he does also.  But they are drawn to each other and keep running into each other.  Each time they meet, they end up together for another night.

As the weeks and months go by, they fall deeply in love.  But these are not two dewy-eyed lovers.  Each is deeply flawed and battered by their prior family lives.  They have been touched by abuse, drug addictions, poverty, loss of other loves and despair of ever having their careers take off.  Yet they cannot stay apart and they confide in each other and slowly start to mend each others' souls.

This is Eimear McBride's second novel.  Her first, A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, won the Bailey's Fiction Prize as well as the Goldsmith's Prize.  This novel was also nominated as a Bailey's Fiction for the 2017 year as well as shortlisted for the Goldsmith's Prize.  McBride captures exactly the overwhelming nature of love, especially first love.  She explores its power to break a person and to mend them and bring them to a healthy life.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.