by Alan Bennett
First published 2002
The Ransomes return home to find their flat robbed bare - even the toilet paper is gone. Freed from their lifetime of possessions, they face a daunting prospect: who are they without their stuff? Meanwhile, a cantankerous woman in a junk-filled van takes up residence in the author's driveway, drawing him into her strange, reclusory life. Two tales of shedding the trappings of the everyday to find new perspectives on the self.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
224 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks