Miles Roby, a gentle, funny loser, runs the Empire Grill and hopes one day to own it. Meantime, though, his wife has run off with his worst customer, he's anxious about his adored teenage daughter and his one-handed brother, and his incorrigible father sponges off everyone.

Composed in a series of web-like sketches, this novel is narrated by a young woman writer who leaves the city to work one summer in the Maine seaport of Dunnet Landing. She writes a New England idyll rooted in friendship, weaving stories and conversations, the tang of salt air and aromatic herbs into an organic 'fiction of community'.

From the Orange Prize-shortlisted author of AMY & ISABELLE, a deeply moving story of love, abandonment, and the peril of family secrets...

Features Julian Clary's story, in his own words - the tale of an awkward schoolboy who became a huge worldwide success on stage and screen. Far more than just another celebrity autobiography or 'funny book', this is a witty account of a unique progression from shy child to comedy icon.

Louis Charles Lynch, aka Lucy, marries his childhood sweetheart and settles down to run a small convenience stores. His best friend Bobby escapes to Italy and becomes an artist. Now, at sixty years old, Lucy and his wife Sarah travel to Venice to find Bobby, though they have not heard from him for many years.