Jonathan Evison

As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.

A terrific novel, funny and moving, wistful and wise. Evison's writing crackles on the page.

Evison is a ridiculously gifted storyteller … an irresistible, inventive novel full of important ideas about how we live our lives as parents, children, partners, and human beings.

A gifted raconteur with a wicked sense of humor and an unflagging empathy for humankind in all its sad, foible-filled magnificence.

Told through flashbacks, the novel is adeptly narrated by a third-person figure…This wistful story is a charming read about life, love and mother-daughter relationships!

Jonathan packs an entire life - many lives - into this fine book, and does so with the empathy and insight of a writer at the top of his game.

Insightful, richly entertaining … Evison writes humanely and with good humour of his characters, who like the rest of us, muddle through too often without giving ourselves much of a break. A lovely, forgiving character study that’s a pleasure to read.

‘As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.’ 
Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette 
 
Harriet Chance has spent the last seventy-eight years following the rules… 
 
Career girl (brief) 
Wife (fifty-five years) 
Mother of two (ongoing) 
 
Now widowed, Harriet discovers that her late husband had been planning an Alaskan cruise. Ignoring the advice of her children and wanting to make the most of the opportunity, she decides to set sail. 
 
There, amid the buffets and lounge singers, between the imagined appearances of Bernard and the very real arrival of her daughter, Harriet is forced to take a long look back, confronting the truth about pivotal events that changed the course of her life. 
 
What she will discover is that she has lived the best part of her life under entirely false assumptions. Confronted with the notion that her past could have been different, will she take a second chance at life?

Jonathan Evison

Praise for This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.

A terrific novel, funny and moving, wistful and wise. Evison's writing crackles on the page.

Evison is a ridiculously gifted storyteller … an irresistible, inventive novel full of important ideas about how we live our lives as parents, children, partners, and human beings.

As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.

A terrific novel, funny and moving, wistful and wise. Evison's writing crackles on the page.

Evison is a ridiculously gifted storyteller … an irresistible, inventive novel full of important ideas about how we live our lives as parents, children, partners, and human beings.

As sweet as it is inventive, profound as it is hilarious, unflinching as it is big-hearted.

A terrific novel, funny and moving, wistful and wise. Evison's writing crackles on the page.

Evison is a ridiculously gifted storyteller … an irresistible, inventive novel full of important ideas about how we live our lives as parents, children, partners, and human beings.

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