The Old Romantic

(Paperback)

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Description

A black comedy that gets to the heart of the war between the sexes from the bestselling author of Becoming Strangers Ken is so obsessed with death that he's planning his own funeral - right down to the last morbid detail. He will die in the bosom of his family. There's just one problem. His family want nothing to do with him. His upwardly mobile son Nick hasn't seen him in fifteen years - and doesn't want to be reminded of the miserable old man he escaped. But Ken is nothing if not dogged. Whether he likes it or not, Ken's going to remind him of exactly what Nick has been missing ... And who he really is.

Reviews

Channels the rough music of everyday life with a tragicomic subtlety, a pin-sharp ear for dialogue and a flair for every nuance of character and class. Louise Dean's fearless, frank and darkly comic novels have brought a fresh colour and character to English fiction -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
Dark, scurrilous and richly comic. There is so much to treasure in this terrific book, but its deepest joy is the sharp, perceptive writing * Financial Times *
Dean is able to demonstrate her unobtrusive skill as the creator of comic set-pieces...painfully funny * The Sunday Times *
Very appealing...so vivid are the quintessentially British characters and the snappy, well-observed dialogue. Delightful, eccentric * Observer *
Dean's observations have a lyrical intensity few can match * Guardian *
A warm-hearted comedy of bad manners * Daily Mail *
Dean writes with beautifully controlled clarity about family ties, social class, the generation gap and the vanished England of the past. She's extremely funny, but also humane and moving * The Times *
Sharply observed * Psychologies *
Compassionate and amusing * The Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

Louise Dean is the author of three previous novels- Becoming Strangers, which was awarded the Betty Trask Prize in 2004 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award, This Human Season and The Idea of Love. She lives in Kent and has three children.