The Frank Business

'A talented, witty writer with a sharp eye for social observation' Daily Mail

After Frank drops down dead in Heathrow Arrivals on Christmas Eve, his estranged daughter Jem is called in to identify the body. When Jem travels back to Frank's house in France - a house she hasn't been in since she was a child - she realises that Frank had a son too.

Frank has died of a congenital heart defect, a defect he may have passed on to his daughter - or on to his son. Jem must warn her brother, but in finding herself a family she risks ripping another apart.

Shrewd, witty and poignant, The Frank Business is a vivid tale of love and other battlefields.

“I sank into the book, and looked forward to diving back into its world each time I was away from it . . . Olivia Glazebrook's writing has a lovely, fluid rhythm, and she writes with insight and candour about complex family dynamics, and the ways in which we love and hurt each other - Laura Barnett Olivia Glazebrook nails the complexity of family dynamics with sharp, witty writing - Good Housekeeping She has the ability, like Anita Shreve or Maggie O'Farrell, to scrutinise and describe complex family dynamics with forensic precision - The Spectator A talented, witty writer with a sharp eye for social observation - Daily Mail Secrets and lies work well in stories of family fractures and affairs of the heart, and Glazebrook extends this to the false narratives we often need to tell ourselves to make our actions more palatable - truths we bury or expunge from our memories. There are some gleaming moments of dark humour and droll dialogue, with an undercurrent of fatalism like an invisible director, as characters are forced into certain roles: an absorbing, psychologically agile novel - Irish Times [A] finely written and very English novel . . . The plotting and interweaving of narrative lines are worthy of Jane Austen particularly in the intricate tying up of loose ends for all the main characters . . . Characters are drawn with insight, humanity, and humour . . . There is a droll wit at work throughout with close verbal attention . . . Glazebrook writes with a literary style but is not above being very entertaining . . . Glazebrook delves into the full drawn characters and in particular the bitter twists their lives can take, but it is a sweet, sweet read - Irish Examiner”

I sank into the book, and looked forward to diving back into its world each time I was away from it . . . Olivia Glazebrook's writing has a lovely, fluid rhythm, and she writes with insight and candour about complex family dynamics, and the ways in which we love and hurt each other - Laura Barnett

Olivia Glazebrook nails the complexity of family dynamics with sharp, witty writing - Good Housekeeping

She has the ability, like Anita Shreve or Maggie O'Farrell, to scrutinise and describe complex family dynamics with forensic precision - The Spectator

A talented, witty writer with a sharp eye for social observation - Daily Mail

Secrets and lies work well in stories of family fractures and affairs of the heart, and Glazebrook extends this to the false narratives we often need to tell ourselves to make our actions more palatable - truths we bury or expunge from our memories. There are some gleaming moments of dark humour and droll dialogue, with an undercurrent of fatalism like an invisible director, as characters are forced into certain roles: an absorbing, psychologically agile novel - Irish Times

[A] finely written and very English novel . . . The plotting and interweaving of narrative lines are worthy of Jane Austen particularly in the intricate tying up of loose ends for all the main characters . . . Characters are drawn with insight, humanity, and humour . . . There is a droll wit at work throughout with close verbal attention . . . Glazebrook writes with a literary style but is not above being very entertaining . . . Glazebrook delves into the full drawn characters and in particular the bitter twists their lives can take, but it is a sweet, sweet read - Irish Examiner

Olivia Glazebrook lives in London. Her previous novels are The Trouble with Alice and Never Mind Miss Fox.

'A talented, witty writer with a sharp eye for social observation' Daily Mail After Frank drops down dead in Heathrow Arrivals on Christmas Eve, his estranged daughter Jem is called in to identify the body. When Jem travels back to Frank's house in France - a house she hasn't been in since she was a child - she realises that Frank had a son too.Frank has died of a congenital heart defect, a defect he may have passed on to his daughter - or on to his son. Jem must warn her brother, but in finding herself a family she risks ripping another apart. Shrewd, witty and poignant, The Frank Business is a vivid tale of love and other battlefields.

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