Jonathan Coe was born a few miles from Bournville in 1961. The author of political satires such as What a Carve Up! and Number 11, and family sagas such as The Rotters' Club and The Rain Before It Falls, his novels have won prizes at home and abroad, including Costa Novel of the Year and the Prix du Livre Europeen (both for Middle England).
Spectacular, heartbreaking, beautifully written. Rosamund's story is one of the most extraordinary and compelling you will ever read. Impossible to put down, I loved every minute of it * Sunday Express * Entirely compelling . . . the plot will keep you rapt . . . reminiscent of Ian McEwan at his most effective * New Statesman * A sad, often very moving story of mothers and daughters * Guardian * A hauntingly melancholy tale of love and loss...a moving exploration of the inheritance of unhappiness, and the devestating consequences it can have for future generations * Daily Mail * Potent and melancholy, like a short, sad song * Guardian * A male writer who can enter such traditionally female territory and aquit himself with such aplomb * Sunday Telegraph *