This
is another state-of-the-nation novel – but done with a fabulously light touch.
It
starts in 2007 – before the financial crash – and it’s all about the characters
who live and work in Pepys Road in north London. Without lifting a finger all
the people who own the houses in the street are ‘rich’, because their houses
are now worth more than a million pounds.
In
one house is the city trader who’s also got a house in the country and a wife
with very expensive tastes and too much time on her hands. Then there’s the old
lady who moved into the house when she got married 50 years back, a young
African footballer and his dad, the Asian family at the corner shop, the
illegal immigrant traffic warden, and the Polish builder.
The
amazing thing is you end up caring for each of them. I never felt I wanted to
get back to another character’s story. It’s funny and it’s compassionate.
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