Mr Lynch's Holiday - Softcover

O'Flynn, Catherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067092332X ISBN 13: 9780670923328

Publisher: Viking, 2013

Synopsis

Mr Lynch's Holiday is the charming and comic new novel by the bestselling and prize-winning author of What Was Lost and The News Where You Are, Catherine O'Flynn.

'I'm looking forward to seeing you and Laura and getting my first taste of "abroad".'

Eamonn Lynch stares at the letter announcing the imminent arrival of his father, Dermot. His first thought is: I'll make an excuse, I'll put him off. But it is too late. Dermot is already here, in southern Spain, and soon he'll discover that Eamonn lives in an unfinished building site; that Laura's left him; and that it'll be just the two of them, father and son, for two long, hot weeks.

Dermot doesn't entirely recognise his son; how can he stay quite so long in bed? And where is Laura? Eamonn doesn't seem to know quite what to make of his father's arrival. On the other hand his neighbours - pushy and domineering Roger and Cheryl, smug but disillusioned property developers Becca and Ian - see in Dermot a respite from themselves.

Swept up in the British expats' ceaseless barbecuing and bickering, both father and son slowly discover the truth about each other and the family past. But at the same time they uncover a shocking, unacknowledged secret at the heart of this defiant but beleaguered community.

Mr Lynch's Holiday is a very funny and moving story about the clash of generations; about how families break apart and come together again; about how living "abroad" can feel less like a long holiday and more of a life sentence.

'An awesomely talented writer' Jonathan Coe

'A tenderness and warmth seep through . . . an astute and thoughtful writer, and her warm take on the world is pleasing' Sunday Times on The News Where You Are

'Darkly funny' Independent on Sunday on The News Where You Are

'A comic genius . . . entertaining and often thoughtful' Daily Mail on The News Where You Are

Catherine O'Flynn was born in 1970 and raised in Birmingham, the youngest of six children. Her parents ran a sweet shop. She worked briefly in journalism, then at a series of shopping centres. She has also been a web editor, a postwoman and a mystery shopper.

About this title

Review:

Delightful ... a rare love story between a father and a son (Sunday Telegraph)

An awesomely talented writer (Jonathan Coe)

Ms O'Flynn is a remarkable and original writer...tenderness, warmth, thoughtfulness and comic genius are words that are flung around a lot, but it's more than that. She flinches at nothing and is as sharp as dammit (Fay Weldon Observer)

O'Flynn writes with brilliant wit and warmth about people cast adrift in contemporary wildernesses, and the resolution between father and son is surprising and satisfying (The Times)

Like Jonathan Coe, O'Flynn has a gift for catching recent social history in her fiction, and this is a cuttingly down-to-earth book about families, expats and the experience of being Irish in Britain in the 1970s (Sunday Times)

The charm of this story of the skill and pathos with which the touching father and son relationship is portrayed. Subtle, clever and thoroughly enjoyable (Sunday Mirror)

About the Author:

Catherine O'Flynn is the author of the bestselling debut novel, "What Was Lost," which won the Costa First Novel Award in 2007, was short-listed for "The Guardian" First Book Award, and was long-listed for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. Her second novel, "The News Where You Are" was an Indie Next List selection and was shortlisted for the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. She lives in Birmingham, England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 067092332X
• ISBN 13: 9780670923328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272