Louise Dean Knihy

In the weeks before Christmas a mother will lose a son, and a father will gain one. Both will have to find a way to survive when everything they love is in danger of being destroyed.

Jan and Annemieke are going on their last holiday together, their love dissolving in middle age. Thirty years their senior, Dorothy and George are on one of their first. When these four people meet on an island in the Caribbean, they find more than an escape from their daily existence. They discover that it's not too late to save the rest of their lives.

Obsessed with death and planning his own funeral, Ken is determined to die in the bosom of his family. But it isn't that easy - his family don't want to know him. In this dark comedy, Louise Dean writes about the changing generations, about class, ageing and death. Louise Dean is the author of three previous novels: Becoming Strangers, which was awarded the Betty Trask Prize in 2004 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award, This Human Season and The Idea of Love.

The author describes the comfort and companionship she enjoyed with her dog while growing up in a troubled family.

In 1979 zijn er alleen verliezers in het Noord-Ierse conflict: de rooms-katholieke gezinnen die hun zonen verliezen, de Britten hun kameraden.