When We Were Bad

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What to expect

When We Were Bad is a spellbinding, witty and poignant portrayal of a family in crisis, in love, and in denial.

'As intelligent as it is funny. A beautifully observed literary comedy as well as a painfully accurate description of one big old family mess. A joy' – The Observer

In North London, Claudia Rubin is in her heyday. Wife, mother, rabbi – and sometimes moral voice of the nation – everyone wants to be with her at her son Leo's glorious wedding. That is, until Leo jilts his bride, and the gleaming bubble surrounding the Rubins threatens to burst.

Frances – Claudia's calm, mature, married daughter – tries to hold the nucleus of the family together, but the stress forces her to re-examine her own life, leading her to make a decision as shocking as Leo's choice to bolt.

And Claudia's husband, Norman, has an uncharacteristic secret. And, whether he likes it or not, he is powerless to stop it coming out . . .

'A comedy with the warmest of hearts and the most deliciously subversive of agendas' - Marie Claire

'Fast-paced and engaging. Brilliant, touching and true' - Naomi Alderman, bestselling author of The Power

Critics Review

As intelligent as it is funny. A beautifully observed literary comedy as well as a painfully accurate description of one big old family mess. A joy
The Observer
Fast-paced and engaging. Brilliant, touching and true
Naomi Alderman, Women's Prize-winning author of The Power
A dazzling portrait of a family in crisis
The Guardian
A completely brilliant book. Breathtakingly good
Barbara Trepido, bestselling author of Brother of the More Famous Jack
Assured, inventive and entertaining . . . Brilliantly climactic . . . Intelligent and witty. The Rubin family may be a singular one but the delights and the difficulties its members have with sex and spirituality, food and domesticity, expectation and achievement, will have a universal appeal
The Sunday Telegraph
Funny and emotionally true, this is a comedy with the warmest of hearts and the most deliciously subversive of agendas
Marie Claire
Charlotte Mendelson’s When We Were Bad will take its place among classic accounts of tribal misadventure with the same apparent effortlessness that proves so pleasurable in her writing. Rarely can readers of contemporary fiction feel themselves to be in such safe hands
The Times
Written with tremendous authority, insight, humour and even wisdom . . . Convincing and moving . . . Funny, absorbing and certain to linger in the imagination
Spectator
Never has the perfect family cracked and crumbled with such elegance, warmth and humour
Meg Rosoff, bestselling author of How We Live Now
Rarely has the suffocating hold of family life been so powerfully portrayed as it has here . . . Mendelson’s great achievement is to make us care . . . Uncompromising and brave
Daily Mail
With great delicacy and elliptical prose, Mendelson draws a subtle and compassionate picture of a family as it unravels. A novel about secrets and the damage they cause
Metro
Compelling . . . A poignant and compassionate novel of a family in crisis as one member after another faces some home truths
Woman & Home
Secret thoughts and unnameable hangups are teased out in glowing, metaphorical and often very funny prose . . . Mendelson explores the shadows and ghosts haunting a family which appears to outsiders to be a harmonious, messy, intellectual ideal
Times Literary Supplement
Brilliant . . . highly entertaining
Independent
Quite superlative
Scotsman
Immensely funny and affecting . . . A novel that wittily and searingly explores the relationships between parents and their adult children . . . an elegant comedy of longing and survival
LA Times
Astute, affectionately mocking prose and a wicked but merciful intelligence
Kirkus
Absolutely spellbinding, so funny, so moving, so totally believable
Jacqueline Wilson

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