Our hapless protagonist, going through a mid-life crisis in his love life and work, rents out his house on Airbnb - cue for an engaging series of guests and their emotional problems. The humour is subtle, underscored with character-revealing dialogue and sardonic inner musings. And although there’s a poignant underlying theme of loss and loneliness, it is entertaining, raunchy, and enormous fun - with the added bonus of lessons in creating art.
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I really enjoyed this funny poignant story about rival families of Sikh shopkeepers in Wolverhampton, a clever reworking of an English classic The Old Wives' Tale. Each character adapts to the immigrant experience in a unique way leading to comic situations, but the conflicts of culture and family life bring sadness too. Knowing the novel it echoes only enhanced my enjoyment by pointing up that however different we may seem we are all human.
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Gather a crowd of family and old friends together in the days leading up to a wedding and you get this - a story of misunderstandings, mistakes, regrets, not quite forgotten rivalry and awkward situations. Infused with humour and a cast of flawed characters it makes for an engaging wry comedy about people and lifestyle.
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Why did Neve and Edwyn marry? As you read Neve's account of her chaotic and nomadic single life you wonder what drew her to Edwyn and when he talks to her the way he does, why on earth does she stay? Can this be love? Some truly disagreeable minor characters but also some sympathetic and infuriatingly comic ones. An unusual and entertaining novel. Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017.
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Switching between unrequited love and loathing; hope and despair, this is an exuberant portrayal of the comedy of human experience, encapsulating both life’s small domestic detail as well as the broader sweep of Jewish history. This is moving, funny, thought-provoking story-telling that reminds us that the miraculous is only a step away from the mundane.
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I was expecting a sort of an African-British Bridget Jones, but I soon found the book had a strong undercurrent of the specific troubles of a young black woman. So glad I have read this because it made me understand just a fraction of the everyday, frustrating racism Queenie and many people like her go through. Having said that, it’s also a funny, moving and very human story - I was rooting for Queenie all the way.
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This is a hugely emotional read that will seep into your every waking moment – and maybe even your dreams. It's suffused with warmth and sadness but pockets of real humour bring light in the darkness. The overriding feeling is one of love, which shines as a beacon through Isaac's pain and loss. But what about the story – and who or what is the egg? Impossible to describe in a few words – so please just read the book and discover for yourself.
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A quirkily written, modern-day story featuring Ottila, her love interests, friends and family. Like most of us, Ottila has her fair share of 'issues' that she's desperately trying to deal with - staying off alcohol, her father's death, her sister's mental health and the complication of her love life. I really enjoyed this novel - it was honest, fresh and didn't shy away from the big problems in life that many of us face on a daily basis.
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French Exit (aka ‘ghosting’) is a term for leaving a social situation without saying goodbye to the hosts - a particularly apt title for this novel about New Yorker socialites (a dysfunctional mother and son relationship) decamping to Paris after being declared bankrupt. This old fashioned tragicomedy of manners, with its absurdist plot and cast of stock farce dramatis personae, is a must for lovers of social satire like myself.
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A painful search for identity as the bi-sexual narrator attempts the seemingly-impossible: to find love and to please her traditional mother. Switching between New York, Beirut, Washington and the West Bank this is an often dizzying sequence of partners, cultures and countries given an immediacy by the first person narration.
View You Exist Too MuchYou won’t find the biggest bestsellers on Whichbook as everyone knows about them already. But you can use your enjoyment of a current bestseller to see titles with a similar mood that you might try next.
