Patrick Gale’s KANSAS IN AUGUST is a witty, warm novel of childhood and abandonment
‘Modern, excellent and sympathetic’ Stephen Fry
Musical-obsessed Hilary Metcalfe, abandoned by his lover Rufus on his birthday, gets drunk, discovers a baby and brings it home to his flat above a corner shop to provide comfort and company. Rufus, meanwhile, allows himself to be seduced by a frivolous young woman, who is actually Hilary’s professional, high-powered sister, romancing under a pseudonym to escape the reality of her own loneliness.
In this witty, bawdy slice of sex and lies, the trio will find themselves drawn together ever more tightly by the lures of hedonism, self-delusion and the inescapable desire to be needed.
‘Modern, excellent and sympathetic’ Stephen Fry
Musical-obsessed Hilary Metcalfe, abandoned by his lover Rufus on his birthday, gets drunk, discovers a baby and brings it home to his flat above a corner shop to provide comfort and company. Rufus, meanwhile, allows himself to be seduced by a frivolous young woman, who is actually Hilary’s professional, high-powered sister, romancing under a pseudonym to escape the reality of her own loneliness.
In this witty, bawdy slice of sex and lies, the trio will find themselves drawn together ever more tightly by the lures of hedonism, self-delusion and the inescapable desire to be needed.
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Reviews
Modern, excellent and sympathetic
Gale's blend of artifice and realism is not quite like anybody else's
Patrick Gale's novels grip tightly, like swaddling clothes, stunning the reader into a state of lolling, contented absorption. How does he do it?