By Nick Hornby
Bestselling writer Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity,” “Fever Pitch,” “About a Boy,” “Juliet, Naked”) is a virtuoso at love long gone unsuitable. In his new brief tale, “Everyone’s interpreting Bastard,” Hornby paints a wincingly comedian photo of simply how messy sleek relationships can develop into, as his characters hit pleasant new lows of cruelty, distress, and pettiness.
Newspaper columnist Elaine Harris has continually written approximately her lifestyles with husband Charlie. Her editor and her legions of readers expect complete disclosure from her, yet what no one—least of all Charlie—anticipates, just a week after the couple choose to finish their marriage, is the rate and inventiveness with which she starts off to attempt him within the court docket of public opinion. On Monday morning, it’s a smirk via a forgettable former lover that first clues him in that something’s incorrect. Then, ahead of he’s settled in at his table, one other co-worker salutes Charlie with the identify of Elaine’s new column: “Bastard!” a brief payment on-line leads him to the column, the subtitle leaving little question as to what he’s in for: “Life with an Ex. He’s long past yet now not Forgotten.” Charlie’s basically desire is that Elaine gets bored and abandon the weekly column—a colourful litany of his disasters as a associate, father, breadwinner, and lover—or that it won’t capture on. yet quickly sufficient it’s a multimedia feeding frenzy, and everyone’s interpreting Bastard! And for Charlie, that’s a bitch.
Only a storyteller like Hornby—who’s given us such a lot of unforgettable novels of comedy and heartbreak—could conceive of a normal man attempting to continue to exist an ex’s wrath long gone viral. Witty and clever, outlandish and human, his most up-to-date rollicking account of love’s fallout will be instructive: occasionally nobody wins. Sorry, Charlie.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Hornby is the writer of the memoir “Fever Pitch” and 6 novels, together with “High Fidelity,” “About a Boy,” and, such a lot lately, “Juliet, Naked.” he's additionally the writer of “Songbook,” a finalist for a countrywide e-book Critics Circle Award for song feedback, and editor of the short-story assortment “Speaking with the Angel.” His screenplay for “An schooling” used to be nominated for an Academy Award. He lives in North London.
