We Had It So Good

Born to hardworking immigrant parents in sunny suburban Los Angeles, Stephen Newman never imagined that he would spend his adult life under the grey skies of north London, that he would marry Andrea for convenience and stay married and would watch his children grow into people he cannot fathom.

For over forty years, he and his friends have built lives of comfort and success, until the events of late middle age and the new century force them to realise that they have always existed in a fool's paradise.

“'My only complaint? I fear I may not read a better book all year'”

Compelling, perceptive and deeply humane - Daily Mail - Michael Arditti

Gripping and stylishly told. Post-war California, Oxford and London are recreated superbly and brightly . . . Grant comes close to creating the perfect novel - The Times - Melissa Katsoulis

My only complaint? I fear I may not read a better book all year - Evening Standard - Rosamund Urwin

Ambitious . . . Like the best novels, it makes you examine your own moral compass alongside that of its characters - Observer - Viv Groskop

Linda Grant is a novelist and journalist. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 and the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2008 for THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACKS.

Born to hardworking immigrant parents in sunny suburban Los Angeles, Stephen Newman never imagined that he would spend his adult life under the grey skies of north London, that he would marry Andrea for convenience and stay married and would watch his children grow into people he cannot fathom.For over forty years, he and his friends have built lives of comfort and success, until the events of late middle age and the new century force them to realise that they have always existed in a fool's paradise.

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