Primeros reseñadores

A hilarious, poignant and darkly comic novel in the tradition of the Adrian Mole novels, full of dysfunctional family life, celebrity obsession, and coming of age in the 80s. Alice’s family, tucked in a cottage in deepest Herefordshire, England, is a bit weird. Her mother, Gina, is obsessed with the weatherman on the local news and when Gina climbs naked onto the roof with Alice’s pet guinea pig in her arms, she is whisked off to the local psychiatric hospital. Keith, Alice’s father, tries to keep calm, but his patience is severely tested by his in-laws whose disturbed behaviour terrifies the community. Can mother and daughter ever be reconciled? Or is the stage set for more heartbreak than Alice can imagine? “It does actually take some talent to distinguish between a teenage crush on a pop star and an obsession borne out of mental illness, but Jo Brand pulls it off. The book is littered with minor endearing characters: Gina’s weary husband Keith; Marie, the family doctor who is secretly in love with him and Mark, Alice’s only close friend. Their three stories become interlinked with a more than satisfactory conclusion. The last line moved me to tears.” — Daily Express (UK)