‘I absolutely loved it . . . Funny, dark, absurd, pin-sharp, insightful, propulsive, unputdownable’ NINA STIBBE
‘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
‘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
Reviews
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 did not give Lisa Owens permission to look inside my very soul but she seems to have done it anyway. Smart, wise and real
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!
Amazing. A unique combo of "stressful classic movie where guy has the worst day ever" and "hilarious and moving depiction of early motherhood". A brilliant and essential novel
I was swept away by this deceptively quiet look at the great adventure of parenthood, which somehow contains all of one woman's messy, beautiful life. Felix - with his devastating one-liners - is surely one of the best characters I've read in some time
A triumph. Warm, witty, astute and utterly compelling, Natural Disaster is a feverish exploration of one day in the trenches with small children. I read each page as if it were a thriller, desperate to find out what obstacle our hero would have to overcome next. Lisa's writing is so precise that this novel never strays into sentimentality and yet, it made my heart ache and has stayed with me. I will be recommending it to everyone
Brilliant and funny and all so searingly, hilariously true. A genuinely dazzling novel. And there is so much love in it too
I read this funny, poignant, pacy novel through my fingers. Parents should read Natural Disaster for the comfort, perspective, and solidarity on offer. Non-parents should read it for its contraceptive qualities! And everyone should read it for its heart
Gorgeously captures what it's like to be a mother. Very funny and very, very relatable
Absolutely nails the tiny victories and calamities of child-rearing and does it with so much humour and heart. Beautifully written and highly relatable, even 10 years after my last maternity leave. I loved it
I raced through Natural Disaster in a day. A funny and, at times, tense exploration of the chaos and isolation that comes with modern parenthood. Sharp, brave and honest
An utterly relatable, funny, and at times excruciating reflection of the rollercoaster that is motherhood, and the very many emotions (anxiety! exhaustion! adoration!) that can run riot within the space of a single day spent with small people. I loved it
I loved it. What a perfect depiction of early motherhood, womanhood, and love
At once laugh out loud funny and moving ... for every mother who feels she's climbing an impossible mountain alone ... This novel makes you feel so very seen. A beautiful elegy to the bittersweetness of being a woman, losing your identity in that motherhood you longed for, family and just every inexplicable hurdle little people unknowingly throw at you
Utterly exhilarating - every page blazes with truth, hilarity, perception and love. Natural Disaster is destined to become a classic
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
Lisa Owens has done something I almost never see: given the granular, particular, often relentless experience of caring for young children the close attention of a poet. But funny
Generous, funny, heartbreaking and clever - a parenting caper with profound emotional clarity. I loved it
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
A profoundly relatable novel, Natural Disaster captures the joy amid the tedium of caretaking. Interrogating her heroine's fears and neuroses, Owens offers refreshing insights into motherhood, marriage, and what it means to be a family
A brilliantly comic, wonderfully warm novel about a journey more epic than the Odyssey - a day in the life of a mother with two children. The must read book of the summer and a classic for any anxious millennial
This is the book I've been waiting for ever since I had children; a hilariously unvarnished portrait of all that motherhood entails; the good, the bad and the completely revolting. Powered by rage and love and a plot so propulsive I read it in a single sitting, I'll be buying it for everyone I know
Heartbreakingly astute and wincingly relatable, Natural Disaster is also the funniest novel I've read in years
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
I absolutely adored it. A masterfully drawn portrait of modern motherhood, hilarious and harrowing by turns
I absolutely loved this book. It's so hilariously specific while remaining utterly relatable. I raced through it in a couple of days - but it's stayed with me in the weeks since, observations and jokes continuing to resonate as I go about my day. I'll be recommending it to every mum I know!
If you have ever spent a difficult hour - let alone a difficult day - with young children, I promise you that you will LOVE Natural Disaster. It's hilarious and honest and so astute about the quotidian frustrations of motherhood and marriage. There were times I wondered if Lisa had somehow managed to get inside my head and read my thoughts. It's a blisteringly good read
Brilliant, hilarious, gut-punchingly truth-telling
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
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
Vividly, hilariously captures the epic but invisible labour of parenting. The full colour wheel of motherhood is here: the pain, the terror, the joy, the bone-grinding exhaustion. I have never felt so seen and, my god, we need to be seen