Pull Yourself Together by Thomas Glavinic from AmazonCrossing (£0.99) is the Amazon UK
Kindle Deal of the Day (January 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking
Quote:
Product Description
Customer review: "...a smart, wry, character-driven satire, with an almost cinematic quality."
“If you’re feeling happy, just wait. There’s bound to be a downside.”
These are just a few of the words Charlie Colostrum lives by, and he’s seen enough downsides to know what he’s talking about (losing his virginity the same day as the Challenger disaster really sets the tone).
A fat slacker with bad skin, Charlie carefully crafts his image, sometimes draping a black cloak over his shoulders and donning a black hat (though he knows smoking a pipe would be overdoing it). He nonchalantly leaves a few books by Nietzsche on the table when friends drop by (though he prefers to read self-help manuals). The jobless, self-proclaimed wimp lives off the kindness—and financial contributions—of his family and spends his time compiling lists of personal rules, daydreaming about becoming a rock star, and scheming his way into bed with as many women as possible (though he’s unable to emotionally connect with anyone).
This satire from one of Austria’s most celebrated contemporary novelists shows that life may not be exactly what you dreamed, but you’ve just got to keep on stumbling.
|
Chocolate Mousse and Two Spoons by Lorraine Jenkin from Honno Press (£0.99) is the Amazon UK
Kindle Daily Deal (January 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking
Quote:
Product Description
Customer review: "A fantastic and witty tale with some believable characters that you will instinctively warm to and enjoy."
Lettie Howells has hit a new low. This is the last, the very last, time, Alan – her soon to be ex – is going to leave her counting the bruises. Her two housemates and super-sorted sister persuade her that she's not going to find the man of her dreams among the ageing tourist traffic in Lyme Regis and she duly sends off her contribution to the Lonely Hearts columns. From a motley crew of respondents she selects Doug Evans – a jolly but 'once-bitten' hunk of a Welsh forester. But the path of true love does not run smooth: there's two whole communities of friends and relations to muddy things up – from Lettie's dominant mother Grace (who takes up with one of Lettie's cast offs from the ad), to her ditzy lodger Lisa (who takes up with Lettie's boss). Though her day job sees her serving tea and cake in a seafront café, Lettie yearns to make more of her painting. Then a trip to Doug's home town provides new canvases and an unlooked for brush with fame, and maybe even fortune, thanks to 'reality tv'…
|
The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir by AM Homes from Granta Books (£0.99) is the Amazon UK
Kindle Deal of the Day (January 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking
Quote:
Product Description
Customer review: "I loved all exploration of Homes's ancestors and thoroughly understood her need to know her roots."
The acclaimed writer A. M. Homes was given up for adoption before she was born. Her biological mother was a twenty-two-year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with a family of his own. The Mistress's Daughter is the ruthlessly honest account of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her. Homes relates how they initially made contact and what happened afterwards, and digs through the family history of both sets of her parents in a twenty-first-century electronic search for self. Daring, heartbreaking, and startlingly funny, Homes's memoir is a brave and profoundly moving consideration of identity and family.
|