Grace Flahive was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She studied English literature at McGill University in Montreal before moving to London, UK, in 2014, where she's lived ever since. Palm Meridian is her debut novel.

"A riotous novel about a farewell party that celebrates all of life's emotions--big and small--while marking the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction."--Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Celebrants

"A joyous ode to the truth that it's never too late for love, friendship, and living the life of your dreams. Beautiful and funny, this book stole my heart and then handed it back full of hope."--Ashley Herring Blake, USA Today bestselling author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care

"Oh, this beautiful, brilliant book. WHAT a debut. Achingly funny and utterly heartrending, written with so much joy and hope and love. I am bereft to have finished and to have left Hannah, Sophie, Esme, Nate, Luke, the Eileens, and everyone at Palm Meridian."--Sara Nisha Adams, author of The Reading List

"Poignant and delightful; the page-turning romance we want set within the sapphic utopia we deserve. An antidote to our bleak reality that proves queer fiction (and queer people) really can have it all."--Jen Winston, author of Greedy

"Hilarious and wise with an enormous heart, Palm Meridian is an extraordinary achievement. Fun to read, while also bittersweet, Flahive's prose can sneak up on you. One minute you're laughing aloud, and the next you're choked up by a poignant punch to the gut. Consider yourself warned. This novel will make you feel alive."--Camille Perri, author of When Katie Met Cassidy

"Bursting with humor, queer joy, and heart. A unique and deeply touching celebration of both community and life."--Emily Austin, author of We Could Be Rats

"Palm Meridian is a masterful love story set in a time of crisis. . . Flahive deftly weaves between the past, present and future. It is heartful and hopeful in equal measure."--Nicola Dinan, author of Disappoint Me

"This book is an absolute hoot. It's also a poignant celebration of love, life and friendship in all its forms. Flahive's debut is wildly entertaining, lovingly written and beautifully anarchic--a visit to Palm Meridian Retirement Resort is a must."--Jess Kidd, author of The Night Ship

"Fresh, funny and full of hope. Grace writes with such originality and heart, I know readers are going to fall in love with Hannah and her joyfully life-affirming end-of-life party."--Freya Sampson, author of The Last Chance Library

"I defy anyone to read this novel and not wish they too were living in a Floridian lesbian retirement community in 2067 (and that is not a sentence I ever thought I'd write). Palm Meridian is artfully crafted, a love story, a tragedy, a comedy, a meditation on life and death--our own, and that of the planet we are, for now, lucky enough to occupy..."--Laura Kay, author of Wild Things

"The kind of read that takes you for a ride--backwards and forwards and in directions you didn't know you could go. I love a story that spans joy and grief, love and loss, laughter and tears. What a thrilling novel this is."--Hillary Yablon, author of Sylvia's Second Act

"There is much to enjoy in Flahive's high-spirited debut--vibrant settings, smart worldbuilding, and exuberant, bawdy queer energy . . . The funnest book about death and post-apocalyptic living to date. Build it and we will come."--Kirkus Reviews

"Does a novel set in a near-future, half-drowned Florida sound uplifting? How about one in which the main character is a septuagenarian with a grim cancer prognosis and 24 hours to go before she dies by physician-assisted suicide? And yet: Flahive manages the seemingly impossible by having Hannah, her protagonist, throw the mother of all goodbye parties at the utopian queer retirement community she calls home. You won't want to miss it."--Publishers Weekly

"For a novel about old people and dying, Grace Flahive's sparkling debut couldn't be more full of life. . . . She's a delightfully clever writer, effortlessly, impressively balancing poignant emotions, serious environmental warnings, dramatic flair; sly playfulness; and dark humor. . . .Perhaps readers' last-page wish for more will inspire companion titles. Endings, indeed, are inevitable, but Flahive vividly demonstrates that living loudly, vivaciously, gloriously, to the very last minute is an essential life lesson to embrace."--Shelf Awareness

Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

Pub date: 2026-06-02

Length: 272 pages