Author:Kate Saunders
Cassie is nothing if not organised. A successful journalist, she's ticked almost all the boxes: attentive boyfriend, own flat, good job, great friends - it's all fallen into place. In theory, at least. There's one part of Cassie's life, however, which is anything but organised, and that's her love for the Darling family. As the only child of ambitious parents, Cassie spent her childhood abandoned to the somewhat peremptory care of a series of nannies until one day, peeping over the garden wall, she met her next-door neighbours: Fritz and Ben, the boys who became her inseparable childhood friends, Gudrun, their father, and Phoebe Darling, the woman who took Cassie in and transformed her life.
But now Phoebe is ill, and when she summons Cassie to ask of her the only favour she's ever requested, Cassie knows she can't say no. But what Phoebe asks is an impossibility: concerned about what will happen to Fritz and Ben after her death, she wants to see them safely married off. Yet entertaining as they were as children, they're terrible as adults. They're utterly charming, ridiculously sexy and completely irresistible, but they're also totally unemployable, hopelessly messy and irretrievably useless. Surely no intelligent woman could be persuaded, once they see past the enticing veneer, to take one of them on for life? But Cassie's determined to grant Phoebe's last wish...
A pacy modern romance with a twist
—— Daily Expressa deceptively simply told tale of love and self discovery
—— Ham and HighWarm Bodies is a strange and unexpected treat. R is the thinking woman's zombie - though somewhat grey-skinned and monosyllabic, he could be the perfect boyfriend, if he could manage to refrain from eating you. This is a wonderful book, elegantly written, touching and fun, as delightful as a mouthful of fresh brains
—— AUDREY NIFFENEGGERA disarming writer, ruefully humorous, knowingly cinematic in scope. This is a slacker-zombie novel with a heart
—— GuardianWarm Bodies is a terrific book - a compelling literary fantasy which is also a strange and affecting pop-culture parable
—— Nick Harkaway, author of The Gone-Away WorldSweet and darkly witty, and, in R, offers a laconically charming hero... Set against the backdrop of this grim world, the life-and-death-changing love affair that develops is wryly playful, cinematic and ultimately moving - through the lost lives of the dead we are able relish life in all its messy, dishevelled gory glory
—— Time OutHas there been a more sympathetic monster since Frankenstein's?
—— Financial TimesEnormous fun
—— Marie ClaireSo sexy it makes Twilight look anaemic
—— News of the WorldA starry-eyed, sweetly comic story about the humanising power of love, for this is Romeo and Juliet...with zombies
—— The BooksellerWonderfully original
—— Henry Sutton , Daily MirrorOne of the most imaginative love stories we've read in years - we absolutely loved it!
—— BellaThe problems of Isaac Marion's star-crossed lovers make the Montague-Capulet relationship seem easy. When your new suitor ate your old boyfriend's brain, trust issues are unavoidable... Has there been a more sympathetic monster since Frankenstein's?
—— Adrian Turpin , Financial TimesElegantly written, funny, self-aware
—— Simon Lewis , Daily Mail IrelandBeautifully written and wonderfully evocative
—— Living NorthYou'll love this book… A haunting love story that brings hope humanity can survive just about anything – even death
—— Molly Dyson , PA LifeThe fastest selling book of the year.
—— GuardianThe world’s bestselling paperback.
—— SunOne of the year’s most talked about books.
—— Mail OnlineGiven McEwan’s ability to make riveting fiction out of English politics (not easy), it would be hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write such a story... Delicious... Gripping
—— James Lasdun , GuardianHis assumption of a female persona is pitch-perfect
—— Michael Arditti , Daily MailNo contemporary novelist is more enthralled by what goes on inside the human skull than Ian McEwan... Doubling back and forth across genre boundaries, Sweet Tooth takes risks...this acute, witty novel is a winningly cunning addition to McEwan’s fictional surveys of intelligence.
—— Peter Kemp , Sunday TimesPlayful, comic... This is a great big Russian doll of a novel, and in its construction – deft, tight, exhilaratingly immaculate – is a huge part of its pleasure.
—— Julie Myerson , ObserverA thoroughly clever novel...a sublime novel about novels, about writing them and reading them and the spying that goes on in doing both...very impressive...rich and enjoyable.
—— Lucy Kellaway , Financial TimesGave us another of his delightful posh-totty narrators, young Serena Frome, who is recruited into the intelligence services in the 1970s.
—— Kate Saunders , The TimesWhat you see is not what you get, and the twist at the end reminds us of how many of this author’s works confound readers imaginations... A well-crafted pleasure to read, its smooth prose and slippery intelligence sliding down like cream.
—— Amanda Craig , IndependentSimultaneously a tongue-in-cheek riff on his own early stories, a typically assured spy novel with a sting in the tail, and a meditation on the relationship between reader and writer.
—— Justine Jordan , GuardianThe true subject of this smart and tricky novel, set inside a cold war espionage operation, is the border between make-believe and reality.
—— New York TimesA wisecracking thriller hightailing between love and betrayal, with serious counter-espionage credentials thrown in... This is ultimately a book about writing, wordplay and knowingness.
—— Catherine Taylor , Sunday TelegraphA triumphant shedding of genre limitations.
—— Adam Mars-Jones , London Review of BooksFor most of its length, this account of a young woman's adventures in the British secret service of the 1970s reads like Le Carre-lite, but with McEwan nothing is ever quite as it seems and towards the end the reader is asked to re-examine what's gone before. Real-life friends and acquaintances of the author have walk-on parts, which you may find fascinating.
—— Irish IndependentGiven McEwan’s ability to make riveting fiction out of English politics (not easy), it would be hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write such a story... Delicious... Gripping.
—— James Lasdun , GuardianParallels and contrasts between the mind-sets and mind games of espionage agents and writers of fiction are deftly teased out... acute, witty, cunningly crafted and full of fascinating autobiographical insights.
—— Peter Kemp , Sunday TimesGloriously readable and, at times, wickedly funny.
—— Arminta Wallace , Irish TimesHad McEwan, through Serena’s benefit of hindsight in narrating her life, planted the clues? Let every reader have the pleasure of finding out.
—— Ion Trewin , Sunday ExpressA curious piece of autobiographical fiction.
—— David Sexton , Evening StandardMcEwan’s prose is controlled, his observation forensic as ever... McEwan carries us with irresistible momentum to a surprise ending.
—— Maggie Ferguson , Intelligent LifeHighly entertaining.
—— John Lanchester , GuardianThe great thing about McEwan is that, despite his success, he continues to work hard, producing ever more accessible and entertaining stories.
—— Henry Sutton , Daily MirrorAn artful game of distortion... Clever handling.
—— Anthony Quinn , Mail on SundayCarefully researched.
—— John Scarlett , Daily TelegraphI loved it. It reminded me of his most successful novel, Atonement.
—— Harpers Bazaar OnlineAdroitly done...highly diverting.
—— D.J. Taylor , Literary ReviewMcEwan’s mastery dazzles us in this superbly deft and witty story of betrayal and intrigue, love, and the invented self.
—— GQFans of Ian McEwan should rejoice with this arrival of this novel, because Sweet Tooth is McEwan's finest work since 2001's Atonement.
—— Kevin Power , Sunday Business PostHis assumption of a female persona is pitch-perfect.
—— Michael Arditti , Daily MailMust read... Intrigue, love and mutual betrayal by a master of the art.
—— The LadyGripping.
—— Evening Standard ES MagazineFull of ideas.
—— Claire Allfree , MetroCleverly metafictional.
—— Sam Leith , ProspectOne of the most hotly anticipated novels of the year...it’s brilliant.
McEwan, as always, presents an engaging narrator... The plot is fantastic... McEwan plays with the readers expectations, and surpasses them all with a fabulous ending that makes me itch to re-read this superb novel all over again. Sweet Tooth marks another triumph for a brilliant British author.
—— Bookgeeks.co.ukA pleasing, tricksy beast with a subsumed sense of metatextuality likely to be pleasing to his fans.
—— BookmunchThis most cunning of authors entertains and manipulates his readers. Sweet Tooth is a masterclass in the art of fiction.
—— Paul Sidey , Book OxygenIan McEwan proves he’s still the master penman with his twelfth novel.
—— GraziaDazzling.
—— Essentials