Watermelon - Hardcover

Keyes, Marian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434004820 ISBN 13: 9780434004829

Publisher: William Heinemann, 1997

Synopsis

It's bad enough that Claire's husband James left her the day he was at the birth of their first child - I mean, if he though it was going to upset him that much he should have just stayed at home - but to rub salt into the epistomy, he didn't even have the decency to leave her for someone skinny! He's just abandoned, leaving Claire with a newborn baby, a broken heart, two extra stone and an-er-birth canal ten times its normal size. In the absence of any better offers, Claire goes home to her family. To her beautiful sister Helen, her soap-watching mother, her bewildered father. And in a story that's both hilarious and bitter-sweet, Claire get better. A lot better. In fact so much better that when James slithers back into her life he's in for a bit of a surprise.

About this title

Review:

Marian Keyes begins Watermelon with a rather inauspicious romantic opening when the heroine's husband leaves her for Denise from the flat downstairs the day their first child is born. Claire, the deserted wife and mother, returns to her family in Dublin and, after going through the required stages of "Loss, Loneliness, Hopelessness and Humiliation", begins to feel much better--so much better that when James tries to win his way back into her affections, he gets more than he bargained for.

The author's style is too blunt and her setting too suburban (with its all-too-human heroine struggling to keep her sanity, tend to her new-born baby, fight it out with siblings and begin to love again) to be a traditional romance, but there is enough chemistry and mystery to keep you guessing in the lip-smacking Watermelon--a dish that may not fill you up but will certainly give you a taster of Marian Keyes' work, of which there is much to sample, including Lucy Sullivan is getting Married, Rachel's Holiday and Last Chance Saloon. --Nicola Perry

Review:

Watermelon, Marian Keyes's very first novel, tells the extremely funny and wonderfully touching tale of a woman who thought she had it all - until the day she discovers that it's all gone . . .

'Failed relationships can be describe as so much wasted makeup . . .'

On the day she gives birth to her first child, Claire Walsh's husband James tells her he's been having an affair and now's the right time to leave her.

(from the publisher's description)

Keyes gives popular fiction a good name (Independent on Sunday)

Full of twists and turns, with warmth and humour on every page, it doesn't disappoint (Closer)

A smart new drama from the awesome Marian Keyes (Heat)

Not only is it a great story with funny, loveable characters, it made me laugh out loud (Stylist)

Keyes manages to have you alternately blubbing and belly-laughing to the final page (Company)

One of those rare books that will swallow up your day without realising it. Romantic and uplifting it won't fail to put a smile on your face. Marian Keyes is back to her best (The Daily Express)

A modern fairy tale, it's full of Keyes's self-deprecating wit (The Sunday Mirror)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Heinemann
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0434004820
• ISBN 13: 9780434004829
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 624