Things To Do Indoors

(Paperback)

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Description

A witty and observant literary novel about two bohemian sisters who fall in love with the same man, set in 1980s West London. A wry, spirited look at being glad and young, this foray back into Eighties London explores relations between sisters, mothers, friends and lovers from the vantage point of a girl caught unexpectedly in the middle.Sisterly sharing is taken beyond the pale when twenty-something Chrissie finds a postcard from her boyfriend to her sister signed, "Kisses, Nick". Within moments she severs her two central relationships and looks boldly forward to the haphazard pleasures of an independent life.Her lyrical journey, from love-lorn waitress to self-contained mother, takes us through the pubs, parks, parties, patisseries, peeling houseboats and rackety flats of west London to the shores of Lisbon, Ireland and Brighton. But Chrissie's attempts to escape the emotional convolutions of London only ever seem to lead to encounters that intensify rather than dispel her growing sense of how knotty life can be.Graceful, sensitive, gently humorous, Things to do Indoors captures intimately the bizarre complexity of life for those who yearn to become independent, but can't stop looking for love.

Reviews

'She writes like an angel and thinks like the devil. Joughin is a major discovery' -- Fay Weldon
'An exciting new talent' * Sunday Telegraph *
'Sheena Joughin has an unusual clarity of voice and a crafty duality, something both brooding and light, in her writing. The hurts and nastinesses between her characters are paralleled with a casual persistence of good nature and good humour in this funny, piercing book about lostness, childishness and growing up' -- Ali Smith * The Times Literary Supplement *
'Very funny, very edgy, very acute. I love this book' -- Julie Burchill
'[Joughin] is already a mistress of mordant comedy... a talent to watch' * Daily Mail *

Author Bio

Sheena Joughin has twice been the winner of the London Short Story Competition, and is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement. She lives in west London with her son.