Janice - reviewed on 10/18/2010 + 631 more book reviews

This is a grown up novel of relationships, in graphic novel form. It's really more like a novel with some scenes shown in drawings rather than text, but there's considerable text to it. What I mean is, it's not like your kid's average superhero graphic novel; if the author hadn't also been a talented sketch artist, she could have done the whole thing in text.

It follows the lives of a bunch of people in a tiny English village - Beth, married to a best selling mystery author, who runs a writer's retreat at their farm and does all the thankless grunt work for her husband; her husband Nicholas, who gets all the glory but takes Beth for granted and continually cheats on her; Glen, a pudgy writer perennially working on his great novel, who has always been caretaken by women; Nick, Beth's gardener; Jody and Casey, two bored teens at loose ends; Ben, a charismatic rock drummer who broke up with his band; and Tamara, a journalist originally from the village who went to London and got gorgeous. When Tamara returns to the village, her presence sets in motion events that change these lives forever.

I really liked this book and would recommend it. I see the film made from it, with Gemma Arterton as Tamara, is being marketed more as a comedy; the book, however, is a comedy-drama.

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