PUBLISHED BY BENCH PRESS

Alison’s highly regarded debut novel was re-launched in July 2026 by Bench Press. This celebrated and hard-to-find book is available to readers again with an elegant new cover.

If you haven’t met Lillian, now is the time. You won’t soon forget her.

On a New York morning after a lot of red wine, 57-year-old Lillian wakes up next to her married lover and takes stock.

How did she get here? Where is she going? Can this be as good as it is going to get?

With her own hard-won brand of wisdom, Lillian reflects on a life which began in 1930s Missouri and developed in Munich, Paris, and London. She draws a vivid picture of the unpaved road between traditional and modern opportunities for women, of societal expectations and parental disappointment, of wins and losses in love, and of professional and personal choices, all of which have led to her solitary breakfast this morning.

In Lillian, Alison Jean Lester has created an indelible and brutally honest portrait of a witty, charming, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes heartbroken woman becoming herself during the decades of change following World War II.

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“I’ve never read anything quite like it. Hilarious, desperately sad, and utterly compelling. An extraordinary and extremely readable novel.” - Fiona Mitchell, author of The Swap and The Maid’s Room

“It’s wonderful on relationships, parenting and deception, and especially piercing on the consequences of moving too fast.” - The Daily Mail


“Creepy and tense but also full of love and friendship and family.”
- Ian Rankin

“Glide is a novel with all the building menace of the best Stephen King told with the style and compassion of Ann Patchett. The book is as revealing as one of Leo’s photographs: full of choices, perfectly observed details, and, at the core, a deeply human truth.” - Chris Huntington - Author of Mike Tyson Slept Here


"It’s funny, warm, scary — and thoroughly recommended."
- John Harding for the Daily Mail

"A mystery, a love story and a fascinating encounter with a different culture, Yuki Means Happiness is an outstanding novel." - John Boyne

"Like the waitress who pulls the bottom of her kimono “into the perfect position” for kneeling by Diana’s table in a restaurant, Lester has constructed her novel like an elegant piece of origami, every element deftly arranged into something as close to perfection as I can imagine." - Lucy Scholes for The National

 

"What a great voice, what energy and wit.  I enjoyed Lillian's travels, her various jobs, and her lovers. She had moments of great wisdom and I was drawn especially to those.  In the midst of the humor and the happenings, a sentence or two of such profundity. I thought the book was very original and often extremely funny, but always with an edge. I completely loved it!" - Karen Joy Fowler

"Dazzling . . . Spiked with unflinching observations, riotous riffs and poignant reflections."
- The Washington Post

"I absolutely loved Lillian on Life. It was a delight. The style of it so fresh and clever and subversive and there’s something very brave about it." - Kate Atkinson

Available as paperback and ebook from all the usual places or order signed copies direct from this website. ORDER