An oh-so intimate, astute, and beautifully eloquent novel that revels in family and friendship while the protagonist learns who she is and what she wants from life. Wonderfully different Eadie Browne is bullied at school but finds two friends in Celeste and Josh, as they leave their childhood behind and enter life at university their relationships with each other and their families begin to change. I absolutely love Freya North’s writing, I've been a fan since her debut and have loved the transition in style across the years. She encourages me sink into her novels and makes me feel as though the world she has created is just for me. Even if I haven’t experienced the issues she is writing about, I feel as though I have as I am able to emotionally connect with the words on the page. Eadie Browne tells her story, and allows us complete access. Authentic and vibrant, she shines like a beacon, her flaws, concerns and fears are relatable. We see her at two stages of her life and I was fully involved and invested in both. Intrigue is created, I wanted to know what had happened to bring her to her later life. While this novel undoubtedly has Eadie Browne at its centre, the other characters within are beautifully vivid and full of life in their own right. The sense of place that is created is immense, from her home, to the cemetery, school, and even the van. Manchester in particular shouts and sings its way across the page and the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s are ALIVE! Eadie and her friends have tucked themselves into a corner of my heart, and there they will remain and I will cherish their company. This novel will be one of my favourite reads of the year and so I’ve also added it as a Liz Pick of the Month. The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne is a joyously emotional whole heap of wonderful and I recommend it with my heart and soul.
'You really must read this book. A rare and phenomenal life affirming read' DINAH JEFFERIES
'Get ready to fall in love with Eadie Browne, the eponymous and eccentric heroine of this tender-hearted, steeped-in-nostalgia story about chosen family' RED When your present meets your past, what do you take with you - and what do you leave behind?
Eadie Browne is a quirky kid living in a small town where nothing much happens. Bullied at school, she muddles her way through the teenage years with best friends Celeste and Josh until University takes them their separate ways.
Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s, Eadie experiences a novel freedom and it's intoxicating. As the city embraces the dizzying euphoria of Rave counterculture, Eadie is swept along, ignoring danger and reality. Until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her with consequences she could never have imagined.
Now, as the new millennium approaches, Eadie is thirty with a marriage in tatters, travelling back to the town of her birth for a funeral she can't quite comprehend. As she journeys from the North to the South, from the present to the past, Eadie contemplates all that was then and all that is now - and the loose ends that must be tied before her future can unfold.
'A delightful dose of nostalgia' HEAT
'A beautifully written tale about growing up, letting go and moving on' SUN
'A gorgeous, heartfelt, atmospheric novel by a wonderful storyteller' LUCY ATKINS
'A beautifully moving portrait of youth, friendship and love . . . I loved it' MIKE GAYLE 'Beautifully written, funny and wise . . . heart-breaking and heart-warming' ALEXANDRA POTTER
