“An immaculately written novel with plenty of dark family secrets and gentle wit within. Recommended for book groups.” Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
(Myriad Editions, September 2009)
Glasshopper was recently named as one of the ‘Best Books of 2009′ in the Observer Review and the London Evening Standard. For more reviews click here.
Portsmouth, 1984. Thirteen-year-old Jake’s world is unravelling as his father and older brother leave home, and his mother, Mary, plunges into alcoholic freefall.
Despite his turbulent home life, Jake is an irrepressible teenager and his troubled mother is not the only thing on his mind: there’s the hi-fi he’s saving up for, his growing passion for Greek mythology (and his pretty classics teacher), and the anticipation of brief visits to see his dad. When his parents reconcile, life finally seems to be looking up. Their first family holiday, announced over scampi and chips in the Royal Oak, promises to be the icing on the cake – until long-unspoken family secrets begin to surface.
Isabel Ashdown’s début novel tells a captivating story of family life, at once troubling, funny and joyous. Vividly bringing to life the gentility of a 1950s childhood, the free-spirited hedonism of the Sixties, and the urban domesticity of 1980s Portsmouth, this is an intimate, lyrical and deeply moving portrait of a family crumbling under the weight of past mistakes.
An extract from Glasshopper won the 2008 Mail on Sunday Novel Competition with judges Fay Weldon and Sir John Mortimer describing Ashdown’s writing as “magnificent”.
Order your copy of Glasshopper at Amazon.co.uk, or read the first chapter by clicking here.
To view Glasshopper Book Club & Reading Group Discussion Questions, click here.
