Edward St Aubyn Books in Order

Patrick Melrose travels to New York to collect his father's ashes while struggling with severe drug addiction. Over one desperate weekend, his search for a fix becomes entangled with old acquaintances, disturbing inner voices, and unresolved childhood trauma.

Five-year-old Patrick Melrose spends a summer day at his family's home in southern France under his father's cruelty and his mother's withdrawal into drink. Before dinner guests arrive, shocking events permanently disrupt the child's world.

Recovering addict Patrick Melrose reluctantly attends a glamorous party in the English countryside. The guests' casual cruelties challenge his efforts to move beyond childhood damage, forcing him to consider forgiveness, honesty, and the possibility of lasting change.

Disillusioned banker Peter Thorpe abandons his conventional life to pursue the elusive Sabine. His search leads into California's New Age communities, where an eccentric gathering of spiritual seekers opens unexpected questions about happiness and personal transformation.

Screenwriter Charlie Fairburn learns he has six months to live and turns to roulette and a novel about death. A relationship with compulsive gambler Angelique intertwines with his fictional characters' debate over consciousness and existence.

Patrick Melrose faces fatherhood, a strained marriage, and resentment as his mother gives away the family property to a spiritual charlatan. Across successive summer visits, competing needs and inherited wounds threaten the stability of another generation.

At his mother Eleanor's memorial service, Patrick Melrose confronts relatives, acquaintances, and the legacy of his childhood. He questions whether losing both parents offers freedom and begins considering the possibility of a less threatened future.

This collection brings together Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk. Patrick Melrose's journey from an abusive childhood through addiction and recovery exposes the cruelty, privilege, and emotional damage within his family's upper-class world.

A literary prize becomes a battleground of ambition, rivalry, and questionable judgment. An accidentally submitted cookbook, a scandal involving a judge, and a rejected author's revenge turn the competition into a satire of cultural prestige.

Former media tycoon Henry Dunbar regrets handing his corporation to his eldest daughters after they confine him to a sanatorium. Escaping into the countryside sets off a family pursuit in this contemporary reworking of King Lear.

Academic Olivia's relationship with naturalist Francis coincides with her friend Lucy's return from New York and unsettling personal news. Their widening circle becomes entangled in questions of scientific knowledge, inheritance, consciousness, and the stories people tell themselves.

After a breakdown, Sebastian seeks the biological mother who abandoned him, while his therapist faces related tensions in his own family. Their lives intersect with friends confronting illness, environmental threats and the uncertain consequences of personal choices.

All five Patrick Melrose novels appear in this volume, from Never Mind through At Last. The sequence follows childhood abuse, addiction, recovery, marriage, and parenthood while examining the lasting effects of privilege and family cruelty.