Various Pets Alive and Dead - Tapa dura

An astute and hilarious take on modern values (Stylist)

Thank heavens for Marina Lewycka whose Various Pets Alive and Dead me laugh at least once in every chapter . . . The warmth of its tone, its zest, its blend of quirky, humane comedy and intellectual seriousness make this a novel to treasure (New Statesman)

Not many authors could successfully mix lentils, bra-burning and free love with city traders, quantitative analysts and the mathematical calculations that supposedly make naked short selling, CDOs and subprime mortgages infallible. But Marina Lewycka is an exception . . . Never has reading about something serious been quite so much fun. (Economist)

Lewycka treats her characters with real affection and combines the big themes and acutely-observed details with characteristic lightness of touch (Daily Mail)

Lewycka displays a similar mix of astringent humour and worldly humanism in her forth novel as she did in her acclaimed debut . . . a funny, farcical novel (Metro)

[Lewycka is] a warm and humane writer . . . most affecting (Sunday Telegraph)

An affectionate picture of a free-thinking, beatnik lifestyle now regarded as batty, but which was underpinned by a real desire to change the world. We could all do with a bit more of that (The Herald)

Lewycka is a warm and humane writer (Guardian)

Wonderfully funny . . . a dizzy, eye-watering treat . . . Lewycka is somewhere between Hilary Mantel in her satirical mode and Sue Townsend (Independent)

Marina Lewycka's latest novel is wonderfully funny with moments of pure farce in the best tradition of social satire . . . this inventive and witty book fizzes along from beginning to end (Daily Express)

Marcus and Doro were part of a commune from the late 1960s until the early 1990s: lentils, free love, spliffs, radical politics, cheesecloth blouses, sex, housework and cooking rotas, crochet, allotments. Their children have grown up rather different from them: primary schoolteacher Clara craves order and clean bathrooms, son Serge is pretending to his parents that he is still doing a Maths PhD at Cambridge, while in fact working making loadsa money in the City; while third child Oolie Anna, who has Downs Syndrome, is desperate to escape home and live on her own. Once the truth starts breaking through, who knows what further secrets will be revealed about any of them? Set half in Doncaster, half in London, this is a very funny riff on modern values, featuring hamsters, cockroaches, poodles, a Chicken and multiplying rabbits, told by Marina Lewycka in her unique and brilliant combination of irony, farce and wit.