Foolish Mortals

All families are complicated but some are more complicated than others. And Christmas can only make matters worse.

After Ciara's estranged father is nearly killed by his second wife in a car accident or was it an accident? - Ciara begins, gingerly, to reenter his life. As her troubled family gather for the holidays, is it too much to hope that they begin to find peace at last? Of course it is.

With cross-dressing twins, new loves and an unpredictably monstrous matriarch, Christmas was never going to be easy. But it proves both more disastrous and happier than any of them could have guessed.

“'The writing is witty and subtly nuanced and the book is as much about the new Ireland- modern, forward looking, practical and tolerant- as about the individual characters'”

- Daily Mail

'A complex, wry domestic drama; a writer of the highest order' - Sunday Telegraph

'Johnston is one of the most revered Irish writers, and this, her fifteenth novel, makes us understand why. Her style is simple and colloquial...there are no literary pretensions: story and characters take priority...Foolish Mortals is essentially an uplifting read' - Time Out - Book of the Week

Jennifer Johnston is one of the foremost Irish writers of her, or any generation. She has won the Whitbread Prize (THE OLD JEST), the Evening Standard Best First Novel Award (for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS), the Yorkshire Post Award, Best Book of the Year (twice, for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS and HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?). She has also been shortlisted for the Booker Prize with SHADOWS ON OUR SKIN.

All families are complicated but some are more complicated than others. And Christmas can only make matters worse. After Ciara's estranged father is nearly killed by his second wife in a car accident or was it an accident? - Ciara begins, gingerly, to reenter his life. As her troubled family gather for the holidays, is it too much to hope that they begin to find peace at last? Of course it is. With cross-dressing twins, new loves and an unpredictably monstrous matriarch, Christmas was never going to be easy. But it proves both more disastrous and happier than any of them could have guessed.

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