The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
a witty and charming novel of friendship, family and first love
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
*THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
'An unputdownable novel about female friendship and the events that shape us' COSMPOLITAN
'Addictive, nostalgic and comforting, this layered family mystery crept round my heart' CLAIRE DAVERLEY
Pen and Alice, childhood best friends from Toronto, are in their first year at the University of Edinburgh. Each has come to the city for her own reasons.
Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she'll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father's - now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox - lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lennox's centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents' secret, just as she's falling in love for the first time . . .
Meanwhile Alice, an aspiring actor, sees university as her route to the West End and beyond. The star of this year's theatre production, she's making the most of the power she wields as an object of desire - until an affair with her tutor begins to slip from her control.
Witty, warm and wildly unputdownable, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is at once a love story and an irresistible mystery, a celebration of female friendship, and a study of how looking back can help us move forward.
'A book to lose yourself in' FRAN LITTLEWOOD
'Brimming with heart' JENNY JACKSON
'Luminous . . . as smart as it is delicious, as nostalgic as it feels fresh' ASHLEY AUDRAIN
'Joyous, clever, and wholly transportive' KATY HAYS
'Emma Knight's witty, wistful debut will keep you up all night' JOANNA RAKOFF
'A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us' CARLEY FORTUNE
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cookbook author Knight (How to Eat with One Hand) makes her fiction debut with a touching tale of a student's romantic entanglements and family secrets. Penelope "Pen" Elliot Winters arrives at the University of Edinburgh from Toronto. While in Scotland, she looks up aristocrat Elliot Lennox, from whom she believes her parents derived her middle name. Her father, Ted, was friends with Elliot and Elliot's sister, Margot, at university, and Elliot now lives with his wife, Christina, at their crumbling family castle, while Margot is a fashion designer in London. Elliot and Christina invite Pen to their estate, where she meets their oldest son, Sasha, who is frequently in the tabloids as he finishes his final year at St. Andrews, and with whom Pen feels an instant attraction. As Pen frets over her virginity and worries what others think of her, she grows closer to the entire Lennox clan, including Margot's daughter and grandson. But after a second trip to the castle ends with the cold shoulder from Sasha and revelations about their families' connections, Pen confronts her naivety and tries to "make peace with herself." Though the cast is a bit too crowded, making the story hard to follow, Pen's intelligence and charm carry the reader along. The result is a satisfying coming-of-age story.
