Naomi Hamill was born in Wales in 1979 but she moved to Hampshire aged six and lost her Welsh accent almost instantly. How to be a Kosovan Bride is her first novel. Naomi is a secondary school teacher living in Manchester. She visits Kosovo each summer and loves eating flija, a giant Kosovan pancake.

This debut novel is about the transformation of two young women and about the way that a nation changes and develops after war. It evokes a specific, undiscovered place. It is characterised by striking imagery and daring form.

Longlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2018

How to be a Kosovan Bride opens up something entirely new to the reader: the history, culture and stories of one of the newest countries in the world. It weaves together Albanian folktale, stories of Kosovan experience of the war in 1999 and a look into the lives of modern-day Kosovan women.

The dark undercurrent of Albanian blood feuds underpins a story about the impact of war and the way that new life can emerge from darkness.

It is characterised by striking imagery and daring form.