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What to expect

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife Eleanor would be the sparkling girl he once found so irresistible; that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held; that his daughter's arrival could have brought him closer to Eleanor. But a few careless words spoken by his mother's friend have left David restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie.

Critics Review

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‘Extraordinary’ Daily Mail

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‘Subtle, clever and affecting’ Independent on Sunday

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‘A homage to ordinary people and ordinary things, to the parts of our lives that often go unspoken … moving and honest’ The Times

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‘A book about the search for greater meaning in the strange dance of chance’ Independent

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‘McGregor’s meticulous syntax melts into a hot flood of words … An intimate tale with penetrating things to say about the wider history of twentieth-century Britain’ Sunday Times

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‘An absorbing and unexpectedly uplifting novel … It will leave you thinking long after you have put the book away on the shelf’ Irish Independent

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‘A close reading of ordinary lives … tender and often
beautifully poetic’ Stephanie Merritt, Observer

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‘Both compelling and convincing. A deeply rewarding read, serious and often beautiful’ Good Book Guide

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‘McGregor is a brilliant prose stylist, and here he excels at
making the provincial and the ordinary seem extraordinary’ Sunday Times

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‘This is a wonderful novel; low-key but beautifully paced,
scattered with extraordinarily intense moments’ Independent on Sunday

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‘This is an unforgettable novel' Daily Telegraph

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