Published by Vintage, part of Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
£7.99
Author:
Kaui Hart Hemmings
Format: Paperback
EAN: 9780099513131
£7.99
Available for dispatch within 1-2 working days
EAN: 9780099513131
Published: 6 Mar 2009
A descendant of one of Hawaii's largest landowners, Matt King finds his luck changed when his fun-loving, filghty wife Joanie falls into a coma, victim of a boating accident. Matt is left in sole charge of his two daughters, teenage ex-model and recovering drug addict Alex, and Scottie, a feisty ten-year-old.
And then Matt discovers Joanie has been having an affair. Deciding to seek out Joanie's lover so that he too has a chance to say his goodbyes, Matt takes to the road with his daughters on a memorable journey of painful revelations and unexpected humour...
Only registered users can recommend books. Please use the buttons below to either create a new account, or sign-in to an existing account.
Shockingly irreverent and funny while exerting that all-important emotional tug... A well-plotted, unexpectedly twisting saga
- Guardian
Kaui Hart Hemmings' assured touch and her fine grasp of the absurd ensures that this novel steers a deliciously scenic route between heartbreak and hilarity
- Daily Mail
Gripping and funny... A brave and intelligent novel
- Sunday Telegraph
An assured and subtle writer. The islands rise lush and untamed in the background
- Observer
Utterly original and absolutely compelling... a fantastic first novel
-
A panoramic tragicomedy about the transience of life...a sensitive, unsentimental vision that is often peppered with comic barbs...treads the fragile thread between heartbreak and humour, announcing Kaui Hart Hemmings as a writer of prodigious gifts
- Time Out
Full of dark humour and astute observations, this is a deftly written rumination on the meaning of family and ancestry
- Big Issue
A darkly funny debut... a sharp story of emotional and sexual awakening in idyllic Hawaii
- Metro
The subject matter may be heated but Hemmings avoids schmaltz at every turn. Even Joanie's death-bed scene is flooded with well-judged comedy. An engaging comic debut about a middle-aged man's attempts to navigate a far from scenic route home
- Independent
Hemmings' quirkily assured touch, her grasp of the absurd and the lush Hawaiian setting ensures this novel's balance between heartbreak and hilarity
- Marie Claire
Terrific debut… a closely observed study of human frailty
- Mail on Sunday
An unsentimental tragicomedy, whose somewhat hopeless male protagonist is so believable that it's a surprise to discover his creator is young, female and only on her first novel
- Dazed and Confused
Kaui Hart Hemmings is the author of the critically acclaimed short-story collection House of Thieves. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope, Best American Voices 2006, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004. Hemmings grew up in Hawaii and lives with her husband and daughter in San Francisco.
