Dimensions
130 x 198 x 26mm
'Nineteen eighty-four. The year I returned to London with my life in a shambles. Of rather more import to the world at large, it was also the title of George Orwell's cautionary novel about a totalitarian state presided over by Big Brother and his thought police.'
It's 1984, London, and after a horrific break-up with her famous playwright lover, Louisa, an international journalist, has returned to the comforting fold of her closest friends from university - friendships that were forged almost twenty years ago. But instead of finding the calming atmosphere of a stable haven of intimate friends content in their impending middle age, Lou discovers that chaos, change and catharsis rule supreme, with hilarious - and disastrous - consequences.
As Lou picks up the pieces of her once-thought rational and intelligent existence, Mim is in the traumatic process of coming to terms with her divorce from the charismatic bastard Jack Black, famous arts commentator and interviewer . . . and womaniser. And Cynthia, the prickly, long-term academic and spinster, is in the middle of her own mid-life crisis about, well, everything. As Lou, Mim, Jack and Cyn struggle along in their own private nightmares, little do they realise that real life, in all its wonder and tragedy, tends to intervene in the most unexpected ways, and no one is prepared for the consequences, least of all Lou.
Virginia Duigan's sophisticated debut novel is an emotional rollercoaster, traversing the nature of change and long-term friendships with pathos, humour and a finale that will make you laugh - and weep - out loud.
