A Spot of Bother


‘A painful funny humane novel: beautifully written, addictively readable and so confident’ The Times

Discover this brilliantly comic and moving bestselling novel by the award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Porpoise.

At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katie, his tempestuous daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray.

The family is not pleased, as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has 'strangler's hands'. Katie can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the way he cares for her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by the way the wedding planning gets in the way of her affair with one of her husband's former colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials.


Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind.

Brilliant...very funny

Sunday Telegraph

About Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon is a writer and artist. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) won seventeen literary prizes, was translated into 36 languages, and went on to become an award-winning stage adaptation by Simon Stephens. His most recent works of fiction include a novel, The Porpoise (2019), and a collection of fables and stories, Dogs and Monsters (2024).
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • ISBN: 9780099506928
  • Length: 512 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 31mm x 130mm
  • Weight: 355g
  • Price: £9.99
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