Discover a novelist that Neil Gaiman describes as ‘an astonishingly smart writer’.When a chance meeting with a stranger leads to an offer of a room in exchange for telling her stories, Molly jumps at the chance.Slowly she builds a new, eccentric family around herself: Tim, her secretive boyfriend, who just might be a spy; Miranda, the lovelorn hairstylist; Liz, the lusty librarian; Mr. Roberts, landlord and listener; and his French wife, Mrs. Roberts.Much to Molly's surprise, she finds the...
One of the great hidden gems of the past decade.Written in brief entries from ‘Ambition’ to ‘Zzzzz’ Salway's confident debut novel chronicles the existential ups and downs of British 20-something Verity Bell.The alphabetically arranged mini-chapters make for an inventive and episodic narrative, as Verity muses on her career (A is for Attitude: «I work as a secretary in the media… something I don't always talk about because some people seem to think I'm showing off»), her friendship with the...