Janet Drummond does a tally of her three children: Wade spent the night in jail again; suicidal Bryan; and Sarah - the star of the next shuttle mission. But even an astronaut has personal problems, and with Janet's ex-husband coming to town, Janet contemplates where it all went wrong. Or did it?

Karen, an attractive, popular student, goes into a coma one night in 1979. Whilst in it she gives birth to a healthy baby daughter and when she recovers eighteen years later she finds herself a middle-aged mother whose friends have all gone through all the normal marital, social and political traumas and back again.

Rob is good on music: he owns a small record shop and has strong views on what's decent and what isn't. But he's much less good on relationships. In fact, he's not at all sure that he wants to commit himself to anyone. So it's hardly surprising that his girlfriend decides that enough is enough.

A hilarious work that evokes the terrible beauty of youth like a young Bob Dylan, frothing with furious anger.

Will is 36, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

Passionate, independent-minded nonfiction from the international bestselling author of 'The Corrections'.