Various Pets Alive and Dead, Paperback/Marina Lewycka

Now in paperback, the wonderfully funny 4th novel from Marina Lewycka. The 3 children of a hippy couple, brought up in a left wing commune, have all turned out rather different to their parents. Clara, a primary schoolteacher craves order and clean bathrooms; Serge is pretending that he's finishing a PhD at Cambridge, when in fact he's earning a packet in the City; and their youngest, Oolie Anna, who has Downs Syndrome, is desperate to escape home and live on her own. 'Wonderfully funny... a dizzy, eye-watering treat... Lewycka is somewhere between Hilary Mantel in her satirical mode and Sue Townsend' }Independent{