WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023 - WINNER OF AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
From one of our greatest comic novelists and the author of Skippy Dies comes a funny, thought-provoking story of one family desperately clinging on as their world falls apart . . .
The Barnes family is in trouble.
Dickie's once-lucrative car business is going under - but rather than face the music, he's spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way to her final exams.
And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.
Where did it all go wrong?
A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil?
Can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life?
And if the story has already been written - is there still time to find a happy ending?
REVIEW
‘The finest novel that Murray has yet written . . . will surely be one of the books of 2023’ Sunday Independent'
Murray is a natural storyteller . . . Ambitious, expansive, hugely entertaining tragicomic fiction' Irish Times
'It's a thing of beauty, a novel that will fill your heart' Observer
‘Generous, immersive, sharp-witted and devastating . . . a triumph’ Financial Times
'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' Guardian
Hardback
Language: English
Extent: 656
Publish Date: 8 Jun 2023
ISBN: 9780241353950
Paperback
Language: English
Extent: 656
Publish Date: 2 May 2024
ISBN: 9780241984406
---
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Hamish Hamilton Ltd
