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Where’d You Go, Bernadette

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What to expect

Bernadette Fox is notorious.

To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she's his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife.
To fellow mothers at the school gate, she's a menace.
To design experts, she's a revolutionary architect.
And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, quite simply, mum.

Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette is a compulsively readable, irresistibly written, deeply touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's place in the world.

(p) 2012 Hachette Audio

Critics Review

A fresh, flamboyantly witty new voice
Helen Fielding
I love the extraordinarily well-drawn characters, the plot, the tender, lovely relationship, the humour, and the courage to do daring things
Extremely funny, often laugh-out-loud so . . . With her penchant for unexpected twists and smart, jet propelled dialogue, Semple has a way of combining a technologically savvy, ice-cool wit with a stealthy ability to show gradually a character's warmer side
Sunday Times
This divinely funny, many-faceted novel leaves convention behind . . . You could stop and pay attention to how apt each new format is, how rarely she repeats herself and how imaginatively she unveils every bit of information. But you would have to stop laughing first
New York Times
The characters in Bernadette may be in real emotional pain, but Semple has the wit and perspective and imagination to make their story hilarious. I tore through this book with heedless pleasure
Jonathan Franzen
A clever, witty page-turner with sparkling dialogue, some hilarious episodes and a heart that gradually melts
Mail on Sunday
In what is at times a sad and painful tale about family dysfunction, black comedy waylays sentimentality. Semple's second novel is a witty, thrilling adventure about creation, destruction, the Antarctic - and the maternal bond
Observer
The funniest book I've read in a decade. I laughed to the point of crying on an airplane. My wife thought I'd lost my mind until she read it a few days later
Marie Claire
A hilarious, nasty, heartfelt satire about parenting, privilege, genius, resilience and life in Seattle
Gillian Flynn
It's intelligent but easy to read; eccentric but never twee
Elle UK
[A] deeply touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's place in the world. A seriously compulsive read
Stylist
Fresh and funny and accomplished, but the best thing about it was that I never had any idea what was going to happen next. It was a wild ride
Kate Atkinson
The funniest book since the invention of the printing press
Gary Shteyngart
Maria Semple dissects the gory complexities of familial dysfunction with a deft and tender hand. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is a triumph of social observation and black comedy by a skilful chronicler of moneyed malaise
Patrick deWitt
A fabulously kooky tale
Easy Living
A delightfully funny book, that constantly catches one by surprise, Where'd You Go, Bernadette combines a shrewdly observed portrait of Seattle life with, of all things, a mysterious disappearance in Antarctica. A pleasure
Matthew Kneale
A novel full of honesty and heart
CNN
Author Maria Semple
Narrator Kathleen Wilhoite
Duration 9 hours and 35 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781409109075
Format Audiobook
Publisher Orion
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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