The Sugar Mother

3 December 2010

Territory Rights — Worldwide, excluding Australia and New Zealand.

Description

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year: a witty and sophisticated classic by one of Australia's most daring and entertaining novelists.

Edwin Page, a fussy middle-aged professor, no sooner bids farewell to his obstetrician wife, Cecilia, who accepted a fellowship abroad, when his new neighbors, Mrs. Botts and her sexy, twentyish daughter, Leila, arrive. Since they're locked out of their house, Edwin invites them in-and then can't get them to leave. He becomes obsessed with Leila and convinces himself that she is a perfect surrogate mother for the childless Cecilia. "Wickedly amusing . . . subversive" (New York Times Book Review), The Sugar Mother undoes the institution of marriage.

Reviews

"Front page review: Jolley’s warmest novel, her most moving, and possibly the best introduction to her fiction. . . . wonderfully engrossing. . . . The conclusion is almost unbearably tense." — The New York Times Book Review

"A droll domestic comedy…emotionally astute and, at times chilling...as much a character study as it is a thriller...Jolley withholds just enough information...to create a suspenseful finale." — Washington Post

"Humor…suspense…and exquisite characterization . . . . Jolley has us in her able grip." — The New Yorker

"Sometimes feels like a Beckett or Pinter play, and sometimes like an engrossing Agatha Christie detective tale . . . . a satire-cum-fantasy with enormous flair." — The Arts Fuse

"Delicious . . . a novel of pungent charm." — Angela Carter

"Hilarious and bawdy." — Robert Coover

Also By: Elizabeth Jolley View all by author...

Paperback

9780892553624

140 x 211 mm • 224 pages

£11.99

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Ebook

9780892553846

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