My Novels

Random Acts of Heroic Love

INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER. No 1 Bestseller on Amazon UK No.1 at WH Smith, Sunday Times Bestseller. Shortlisted for the British Book Awards and Desmond Elliott Prize.

Available in 21 languages including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Hebrew, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Indonesian, Czech, Norwegian, Vietnamese, Serbian, Russian, Lithuanian, Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin.

Based on a true story Random Acts of Heroic Love is a novel with two intertwining threads. The first begins in March 1992. Leo Deakin wakes up in a dilapidated clinic in Ecuador. He has no idea how he got there and can’t remember anything of the last few months. When he is told that his girlfriend lies dead in the room next door his world falls apart. Slowly his memory returns and he blames himself for her death.

The second thread follows the story of Moritz Daniecki  who is conscripted in to the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI and is captured by the Russians. He is sent to a brutal POW camp in Siberia. Determined to return to his beloved Lotte, the memory of whose single kiss has sustained him throughout the war, he escapes in 1917. What lies before him is a terrifying journey through sub-zero winters, civil war and revolution. If he ever makes it, will she still be waiting?

As these two men sustain themselves through the memory of love their hidden connections are revealed in a stunning climax that lives long in the heart.

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TV interview:Richard and Judy Book Club

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Radio interview: BBC Radio 4 Front Row

A tour de force that, like many of the best novels, is based on real events and is extremely moving…The result is mesmerising

Publishing News

“An incredible and extremely moving story…it will bring a tear to the eye of even the most cynical of readers.”

Belfast News

“A lush romantic novel”

Daily Mail

“Tender and insightful”

The Observer

“Really is as special as its press suggests…beautifully told…an amazingly assured debut”

Sunday Express

“Riveting, unforgettable”

The Lady

the Half Life of Joshua Jones

One chance encounter can blow your world wildly off course.

Joshua Jones’s life is falling apart: he’s just lost his job, his wife and his flat. But on the precipice of homelessness and defeat he meets a beguiling stranger, Angela, an impulsive femme fatale who has also hit a low point. Seeking refuge in each other’s arms they share a moment of reckless tenderness before she steps quite deliberately in to the path of an oncoming bus.

As Angela lies in a coma, Josh – determined to find out who she really is and to explain her suicidal act – pretends that he is her boyfriend, inextricably binding their fates. But as his obsession grows, so does the danger of his situation. Suspecting he is being followed, and acting ever more erratically, he begins to question his own sanity until the chilling truth about Angela’s real identity is finally revealed.

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What happened at the Men’s Pond?
What happened in the graveyard?
What happened in the cave?
Ever Feel lost?

“My most surprising book of the year – I loved the twists”

Stylist Magazine

“Manages to break your heart and make you laugh at the same time…this novel is deep and life affirming”

Tanika Gupta MBE, playwright

“Scheinmann is a wonderful storyteller: humane, warm and funny”

Max Richter, composer

“Moving and insightful…Life, love and death are at the heart of this novel”

Sarah Gavron, director of Suffragette