First published 2005
Colette Jones knows the pull of the bottle too well. She fought her own battles with drink, but now alcohol threatens to swallow her entire family. Her eldest son Janus once filled concert halls with his piano playing. Those days are gone. He spends his time drinking with Bill, his brother-in-law who works as a butcher and preaches about alcohol fueling the worker's revolution. Their binges turn ugly and violent. Police get involved. Meanwhile, Colette's older brother struggles with fresh grief after losing his wife. He drowns his pain in whatever he can find. The family stumbles from one crisis to another, bouncing between moments of absurd comedy and real tragedy. Pubs become second homes. Woodward follows this dysfunctional clan as they careen through their self-made disasters, finding dark humor in their shared destruction.
Genres: literary-fiction, addiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: dysfunctional-family, found-family
446 pages · Paperback · W. W. Norton Company
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, depression