Grown Ups (Paperback)

Frequently heartbreaking, occasionally caustic, always searingly honest, Grown Ups is one of the best novels about singleness, siblings and approaching middle age I've ever read A thoroughly enjoyable family character study set in the most perfect Norwegian lakeside cabin: pure escapism! An endearing, moving novel about family, fertility and finding your feet An excoriating exploration into the psyche of [an] aspiring mother This is cringe-comedy at its finest, with Aubert's wry observations cranking things up well beyond eleven. Venomous. Bitchy. Brilliant Drily funny and emotionally gripping, it's the perfect summer read Grown Ups is a beautiful, slim but powerful look at the complicated process of deciding whether to start a family, while navigating your existing family. The portrayal of the sister relationship is one of the best and most resonant I've ever read A really sensitive and thoughtful evocation of a sibling relationship, a family relationship, and an experience that women go through regardless of what walk of life they're living GROWN UPS take a sharp, cool, and funny look at ageing, fertility, and family in all its forms. A perfect novel for a time when we're all wondering who we are and what comes next. Sharp, funny, very poignant, and full of smart observations about family dynamics Exploring the modern themes of dating apps and egg freezing, this is a real page turner with the impressive ability to be both hilarious and devastating [A] comic, painfully human story about what it means to be an adult when you don't have a family of your own An enchantingly funny novella which will ring uncomfortably true to anyone with a sibling or a tricky parental relationship A succinct and thought-provoking exploration of the family unit and how it shapes individual lives This novel from Norwegian rising star Aubert stands out thanks to its sharp observations and distinctive characters Grown Ups tackles big themes with aplomb, weaving together blistering comedy, searing disappointment and close-to-the-bone commentary on family dysfunction, sibling rivalry and modern motherhood Don't be fooled by its size - this is a sharp, timely novel with characters who linger This book is a little firecracker that, with its nimble gearshifts, will make you laugh, think and feel. I've no doubt it will stamp Aubert's name on Anglophone literary horizons, and I'm itching to see what she comes up with next Aubert [has a] singular aptitude for presenting the difficulties of being human with grace and sensitivity, and [an] unerring ability to find humour in the darkest corners A quiet, almost thrillerish, family story that Aubert lightly and elegantly steers towards disaster' A sharp and intimate sibling drama of love, pain and growing up. Very Norwegian, and astonishingly good Marie Aubert's punch-in-the-stomach debut is an intense and utterly absorbing chamber play about the longing to have children and sibling jealousy, where the fury of each line tears into you like a nail against a chalkboard A perfect little gem of 110 pages. With elegance and almost merciless clearsightedness, Aubert dissects a family and its internal relationships within the space of a few summer days Without ever getting pretentious or abstract, Aubert identifies the most acute details, the razor sharp cruelties that may be dressed up as friendliness or small-talk That's the wonderful thing about Grown-ups, that it tightly, sensitively and without a lot of gesticulating, deals with the difficulties of being a human being Aubert's devilish, entertaining humour... is all the more comic in contrast with the fundamental melancholy of these works An outstanding novel ... One of those books that take up little physical space, but still manages to tell a big, involving story Classic, slightly nasty and elegant... A wonderful little chamber drama with a punch I gulped this one down like a delicious summer cocktail. Cringe TV in the form of a novel, and quite simply a devastatingly good novel' Aubert's book is a small, pioneering work about being a single woman in our modern age Impressive, efficient and elegant