If you haven't yet discovered the brilliant Joanna Trollope then this is the perfect book to start with.  On the surface Alice seems to have it all, healthy children, a husband a lovely house and a job.  It appears she could want for nothing.  But there is one thing that downtrodden Alice wants more than anything.  To learn how to read.  For the first time in her life Alice takes charge with the book boy.

Synopsis

Alice is thirty-eight. She has a house, a husband, two teenage children and a part-time job. She thinks she ought to be happy. But she isn’t. Instead, she feels she has vanished, that she is like something lost down the back of the sofa. Because Alice has a secret which is never spoken of in the family as they are all ashamed, Alice most of all. Alice can’t read. Then two things happen. Her son, Craig, brings home his school’s leather-clad bad boy, a terrible influence. And Alice’s friend Liz tells her she’s tired of feeling sorry for her and trying to help. Alice — timid, quiet Alice — must start out on her own brave journey and for it she chooses the strangest companion. For the first time in her life, she knows what she wants and she is going to get it. With the help of the book boy.

Reviews

‘Trollope writes with such elegant precision — revelatory and ambiguous at just the right moments’ Evening Standard

‘Trollope aims for the heart, and she hits it’ New Yorker

‘Deliciously readable’ The Times

About the Author

Joanna Trollope was our Guest Editor in February 2012 - click here - to see the books that inspired her writing.   Joanna Trollope OBE has written numerous highly-acclaimed contemporary novels including: The Choir, A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector’s Wife, The Men and the Girls, A Spanish Lover, The Best of Friends, Next of Kin, Other People’s Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South, Brother and Sister, Second Honeymoon, Friday Night, The Other Family, Daughters-in-Law and The Soldier's Wife. Under the name of Caroline Harvey she writes romantic historical novels. She has also written a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia’s Daughters.   Joanna Trollope was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to literature.   Author Photo © Barker Evans   Click the screen below to view a Q&A with Joanna.     Click here to view part 2 of this Q&A. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation