Rules for Visiting
By (Author) Jessica Francis Kane
Granta Books
Granta Books
2nd July 2020
18th June 2020
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
813.6
Paperback
304
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 18mm
215g
'Midway through my fortieth year, I reached a point where the balance of the past and all it contained seemed to outweigh the future, my mind so full of things said and not said, done and undone, I no longer understood how to move forward.'
May is at a crossroads. Although her career as a gardener for the university is flourishing, the rest of her life has narrowed to a parched routine. Her father is elderly, her brother estranged, and she keeps her neighbours at arm's length. The missing element, she realises, might be friendship. As May sets off on a journey to visit four neglected friends one-by-one, she holds herself (and them) to humorously high standards, while at home she begins to confront the pain of her past and imagine for herself a different kind of future. May's quest becomes an exploration of the power, and perhaps limits, of modern friendship.
Jessica Francis Kane's first novel, The Report, was chosen as one of the Best Reads 2012 for the Channel 4 TV Book Club. She is also the author of two story collections, Bending Heaven (Chatto & Windus, 2003) and This Close (Graywolf, 2013). She lives in New York City with her husband and their two children.