The Greengrocer's Apostrophe

A collection of three comic tales from BBC Radio 4, ‘The Greengrocer’s Apostrophe’, inspired by those hand-written signs offering ‘Apple's and Banana's’ which can be found in every town in Britain. Originally broadcast in the ‘Afternoon Reading’ slots from 28-30 September 2010.  ‘Penny's from Heaven’ by Anneliese Mackintosh: James Anthony Pearson reads a quirky story about the apostrophe that ends a relationship. Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.  ‘Alice, Hanging in There’ by Ronald Frame: When Alice's high-flying career stalls, she finds a novel way to occupy her time. Armed only with a balaclava and a pot of paint, she starts to vent her anger on sloppy punctuation. Read by Tracy Wiles. Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.  ‘The Sweet Possessive´ by Diana Hendry: Distracted by an apostrophe obsession, a woman fails to notice that her lover is not all that he seems. Read by Monica Gibb. Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.

Anneliese Mackintosh

[A] raw, funny and untidily generous novel... Ottila belongs to the great sisterhood of the Female Fuck-Up. Not the eroticised trainwrecks male writers love to invent, but the real-deal ones like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag... As much as you’re rooting for Ottila to get her man, that’s not the point; the point is whether she can gain the moral wisdom to live a better kind of life. She’s an Emma steeped in ethanol.

This lovely, quirky novel will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti.

I loved the novel’s strong sense of place and the picture it paints of a sparky, inner-city singleton trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Funny, bleak and heart-warming, sometimes all at the same time.

Balances irony and earnestness perfectly, offering both a heartbreakingly sincere quest for happiness and an acerbic intolerance of hollow quick-fixes... Anneliese Mackintosh’s latest work is positively radiant.

Impressive and challenging… This debut novel is every bit as assured, honest and innovative as its predecessor… So Happy It Hurts is something of a high-wire act, laugh-out-loud funny at times but also so emotionally honest that it sometimes feels like a punch to the guts… As sharp a novel about 21st-century living as you’ll find anywhere.

A cleverly constructed story, full of trauma, playfulness and wisdom. When portraying fallible lives, Mackintosh’s writing never flinches.

Searing… Mackintosh manages to write a book that no one else could pull off with all the same weird panache, peeling back the surface of her main character to expose all the blood and guts and mess beneath.

It’s patchwork construction… works really well… a jolly, perky read

‘This lovely, quirky novel will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti’ Red 
 
Ottila McGregor is thirty years old and has decided it’s time to sort her life out. She’s going to quit drinking, stop cheating and finally find true happiness. Easy, right? 
 
Getting in the way of this plan are: 
1. Grace, her best friend, who believes self-improvement is for people in their forties. 
2. Mina, her sister, who is mentally ill, and it might be Ottila’s fault. 
3. Thales, the Greek guy who works in the hospital cafeteria – probably the best, most dangerous person Ottila’s ever met. 
 
Told through a scrapbook of emails, receipts, therapy transcripts and other ephemera, this is an infectious one-off of a novel that makes you wince and laugh in equal measure.

So Happy It Hurts

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

Frankenstein

Wings

Flesh

Anneliese Mackintosh

Praise for So Happy It Hurts

[A] raw, funny and untidily generous novel... Ottila belongs to the great sisterhood of the Female Fuck-Up. Not the eroticised trainwrecks male writers love to invent, but the real-deal ones like Phoebe Walle ...

This lovely, quirky novel will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti.

I loved the novel’s strong sense of place and the picture it paints of a sparky, inner-city singleton trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Funny, bleak and heart-warming, sometimes all at the same time.

[A] raw, funny and untidily generous novel... Ottila belongs to the great sisterhood of the Female Fuck-Up. Not the eroticised trainwrecks male writers love to invent, but the real-deal ones like Phoebe Walle ...

This lovely, quirky novel will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti.

I loved the novel’s strong sense of place and the picture it paints of a sparky, inner-city singleton trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Funny, bleak and heart-warming, sometimes all at the same time.

[A] raw, funny and untidily generous novel... Ottila belongs to the great sisterhood of the Female Fuck-Up. Not the eroticised trainwrecks male writers love to invent, but the real-deal ones like Phoebe Walle ...

This lovely, quirky novel will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti.

I loved the novel’s strong sense of place and the picture it paints of a sparky, inner-city singleton trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Funny, bleak and heart-warming, sometimes all at the same time.

Books by Anneliese Mackintosh

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter