The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs

(Paperback)

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Description

Mary doesn't know what makes her angrier - the way he doesn't quite reach the laundry basket when he throws his dirty clothes at it (but never walks over and picks them up and puts them in), or the balled-up tissues he leaves on the bedside table when he has a cold, or the way he never completely empties the dishwasher, but leaves the 'difficult' things for her to put away. Is it that because she is 'only working part-time' she is responsible for everything on the domestic front Or is it, simply, that he puts used teabags in the sink

Mary is the mother of two young boys - she knows how you're supposed to get the behaviour you want. So now she's designing the spousal equivalent of a star chart. Every little thing her husband does wrong is going on it. And yes, she know you're supposed to reward the good behaviour rather than punish the bad, but obviously the rules for those in middle age are different than the rules for those not even in middle school...

Reviews

Christina Hopkinson has wittily and very realistically tapped into the zeitgeist - literally the most relevant novel for a working mother since I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson. - Plum Sykes, author of Bergdorf Blondes

I read it, I really enjoyed it, I left it on the stairs. - John O'Farrell

The new I Don't Know How She Does It - Grazia

This is a so-real-it's-scary, look at marriage, motherhood and the war on the domestic front. - Cosmopolitan, Australia

A perceptive take on modern marriage in a world where equality has handed the women the right to have it all but not the time, money or energy to actually do it. - Sunday Herald Sun

The strength of the novel is in its narrative arc about a relationship recalibrating after children disrupt the notion of gender equality . . . there are many shades of grey, many contradictions, many domestic realities incisively observed. - Sunday Telegraph, Australia

Author Bio

Christina Hopkinson is an author and journalist whose work has appeared in the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Times, Grazia and Red magazine. Her first novel, IzobelBrannigan.com was published by Piatkus and was described by the Mirror as 'an insightful debut - witty, wise and worth reading'. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

Visit Christina's website, www.christinahopkinson.com, and follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/Xtinahopkinson.