Almost English

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What to expect

‘The multi award-winning Charlotte Mendelson is famous for whipping up the hottest, messiest family dramas a writer of literary fiction can . . . This is late Shakespeare meets Modern Family and it’s irresistible’ – The Times

In a tiny flat in West London, sixteen-year-old Marina lives with her emotionally delicate mother and three ancient Hungarian relatives. Imprisoned by her family’s crushing expectations and their traditions, she knows she must escape.

At Combe Abbey, a traditional English private boarding school in the Dorset countryside, Marina realizes she’s made a terrible mistake. Here, among the boathouses, chapel services and unspoken social hierarchy, she is the awkward half-foreign girl who doesn’t know how to fit in, flirt, or even exist.

Meanwhile, her mother has her own painful secrets to deal with – especially the surprising return of the very last man she’d expect to see. And Marina’s disastrous spiral at Combe Abbey is going unnoticed . . .

‘A deliciously funny tale of dysfunctional families. . . Reading Mendelson’s easy, assured prose is like sinking into something soft and velvety’ – Telegraph

‘I read and adored Almost English . . . and now I will read everything she’s ever written. Charlotte Mendelson is a fiendishly gifted writer’ – Marian Keyes

Critics Review

I read and ADORED Almost English . . . And now I will read everything she's ever written. Charlotte Mendelson is a fiendishly gifted writer with such a way of looking at the world with huge generosity of spirit. It's what we need, especially now
Marian Keyes
Charlotte Mendelson is much admired by the cognoscenti and Almost English ought to be a bestseller. The account of a girl from a family of Hungarian aunts, dealing with love and old lechers at a ghastly boarding school in the 1980s, is sheer bliss — pure rueful comedy with endless resourcefulness . . . I adore her novels and wish there were many more of them
Spectator
I adored Almost English
Nigella Lawson
Almost English is as good as we’d hoped . . . This funny, wise and heart-warming 1980s-set novel is perfect summer reading
Elle
Charlotte Mendelson’s fourth novel is a deliciously funny tale of dysfunctional families. The Farkases recall characters from fairy tales or Roald Dahl . . . Reading Mendelson’s easy, assured prose is like sinking into something soft and velvety
Telegraph (Top 10 Summer Holiday Reads)
Exotic, magnificent and just a little bit sinister . . . Mendelson's novels inhabit similar territory to those of Maggie O'Farrell, with the same capacity for extreme noticing, the same profound emotional intelligence shaping the characters and driving the narrative. But Mendelson's world is sharper, her sense of the world a little more cynical. Almost English has been longlisted for this year's Booker; it deserves to win for the quality of the writing alone . . . Beautifully written, warm, funny and knowing
Observer
Charlotte Mendelson’s Man Booker Prize-longlisted novel takes that most English of literary genres – the boarding school comedy – and spices it with exotic ingredients drawn from Hungarian culture . . . It demonstrates a mastery of narrative craft . . . [A] deliciously moreish read
Financial Times
The Booker longlisted novel is a warm, wry and lively account of teenager Marina . . . the humanity in Mendelson’s observations and her clever, comic writing make this a sparkling treat
Metro
Almost English is long-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize, and Charlotte Mendelson writes of the inner monologues and quiet frustrations that plague an all-female, half-Hungarian household trying to fit into society with a wry humour that carries echoes of Zadie Smith and Zoe Heller
Stylist
Almost English, her fourth novel, has just been longlisted for the Man Booker prize and it isn't difficult to see why: it is a little masterpiece of characterisation and milieu. There is plenty of plot and movement in Almost English, many changes of scene and points of view.
Guardian
Almost English is a finely executed comedy of manners, with a dark side . . . [Mendelson] masterminds events with wit and ingenuity, shifting moods from darkness to light in an instant, and delivering some glorious moments of uproarious comedy . . . Call it Jane Austen for the 21st century – a novel on a small scale, full of private preoccupations and a mischievously overblown supporting cast; a novel that nevertheless says something profound about the human condition
Scotsman

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