About the Author

Marian Keyes is the international bestselling author of Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, Angels, The Other Side of the Story, Anybody Out There, This Charming Man, The Brightest Star in the Sky, The Mystery of Mercy Close and The Woman Who Stole My Life. Her journalism, collected under two titles, Making It Up As I Go Along and Under the Duvet: Deluxe Edition, containing the original publications Under the Duvet and Further Under the Duvet, are also available from Penguin.
Marian lives in Dublin with her husband.

Reviews

International bestseller Keyes is back with another quirky, heartwarming story of the Walsh sisters (Angels, etc.). Anna Walsh has returned to the bosom of her family in the Dublin suburbs to recuperate from the horrendous car accident that has left her with multiple fractures and a disfiguring scar across her face. Desperate to go back to New York and resume her normal life, she soon packs up her bags and returns to her job in beauty PR for punk cosmetics brand Candy Grrrl. A lonely and debilitated Anna leaves e-mails and phone messages for her mysteriously absent husband, Aidan, pleading for him to reply. Just as the reader is bursting with indignation that the cad hasn't contacted her (a quarter of the way into the novel), we learn that Aidan died in the car accident, and that Anna's missives are her way of dealing with grief. Desperate for contact, Anna tries charlatan psychics, celebrity mediums and contacting-the-dead support groups. Meanwhile, she reminisces about their courtship and marriage while her kooky family (especially her Mum and hyperactive PI sister Helen) tries to buoy her spirits. Keyes's trademark blend of humor, diverse characters and a warm but unsentimental tone strikes gold. (May 9) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

The lovable Walsh family (Angels; Watermelon; Rachel's Holiday) is back in Keyes's newest endeavor, this time with Anna at center stage when she suffers serious injuries in a Manhattan taxi accident and ends up recuperating at home with her parents in Dublin, Ireland. But Anna has more to worry about: the escapades of her sister, Helen, a private eye working for Irish gangsters; her best friend and her sorry romances; her sister Rachel's upcoming nuptials; and her mother's obsession with a dog that is being trained to poop next to the mailbox. To boot, her husband, Aidan, back in New York, is not answering her emails and seems to have become a rather shadowy character. When Anna returns to Manhattan, her physical wounds finally healed up, life takes some shocking turns. Keyes has once again penned an intelligently written novel that is as warmly funny as her previous books but is ultimately much more heartbreaking. Recommended for all fiction collections.-Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.