Higher Ed

Description

London. Now. And here come the new Londoners. Francine would prefer to be thinner, but is happy enough to suffer her boss' manhandling of her ample hips if it helps her survive the next cull in Quality Assurance. She just wishes she could get the dead biker's crushed face out of her mind's eye. Robin is having a baby with the wrong woman, wishes he were with the perfect Polish waitress instead, leans hard on Deleuze for understanding, and wonders if his work in film will continue to be valued by the university management. Olivia is angry - angry with her layabout mother, with her too-casual BFF, and with her own timidity and anxiety. Perhaps the wisest of her lecturers will help? Knowledge is Power, right? And she's beautiful when she's angry. Ed wishes he'd never gone back to Guyana to help his rass brother as it lost him his mini-Marilyn wife and the possibility of watching his only child grow up - until someone surprising crops up at the crematorium. Katrin is starting not to miss Gdansk or Mamunia so much, and starting to understand London living. But if she works and hopes harder, maybe she'll secure a full British future for herself and her mother with the Good Englishman. The five of them cross paths and cross swords to bring London living unforgettably to life. Real London lives. 'Written in a captivating polyphonic style reminiscent of Zadie Smith's White Teeth and NW, Tessa McWatt's big-hearted novel animates her five characters effortlessly.' Quill & Quire 'McWatt conjures a familiar world of uncertainties, in which fallible but striving individuals find basic needs - security, community, bonds - difficult to attain. Kind to her characters, but never blind to their iffy choices or restrictive circumstances, McWatt gradually grants the members of this loosely interrelated tribe some respite. Her generous vision suggests that people might not get exactly what they desire, but, since the world's a huge, complicated place, it may provide them with something else, something ultimately beneficial.' Maclean's 'A wryly passionate, slyly political and engrossing concatenation of London lives, that only a Londoner by choice could have written.' China Mievelle 'The search for love is at the heart of Tessa McWatt's work as a writer, and so it is in Higher Ed. Her characters are by turns wise and foolish, hopeful and sometimes - movingly - so very near defeat. But they all continue to search ...In dark times, they want to walk to the light. We watch them and hope that they make it.' Ronan Bennett 'McWatt conjures a familiar world of uncertainties, in which fallible but striving individuals find basic needs - security, community, bonds - difficult to attain. Kind to her characters, but never blind to their iffy choices or restrictive circumstances, McWatt gradually grants the members of this loosely interrelated tribe some respite. Her generous vision suggests that people might not get exactly what they desire, but, since the world's a huge, complicated place, it may provide them with something else, something ultimately beneficial.' Maclean's 'Wonderful narration. Wonderful map of the archipelago. Embark and discover it!' John Berger

Authors Bio, not available

'Written in a captivating polyphonic style reminiscent of Zadie Smith's White Teeth and NW, Tessa McWatt's big-hearted novel animates her five characters effortlessly.' Quill & Quire 'McWatt conjures a familiar world of uncertainties, in which fallible but striving individuals find basic needs - security, community, bonds - difficult to attain. Kind to her characters, but never blind to their iffy choices or restrictive circumstances, McWatt gradually grants the members of this loosely interrelated tribe some respite. Her generous vision suggests that people might not get exactly what they desire, but, since the world's a huge, complicated place, it may provide them with something else, something ultimately beneficial.' Maclean's 'A wryly passionate, slyly political and engrossing concatenation of London lives, that only a Londoner by choice could have written.' China Mievelle 'The search for love is at the heart of Tessa McWatt's work as a writer, and so it is in Higher Ed. Her characters are by turns wise and foolish, hopeful and sometimes - movingly - so very near defeat. But they all continue to search ...In dark times, they want to walk to the light. We watch them and hope that they make it.' Ronan Bennett 'McWatt conjures a familiar world of uncertainties, in which fallible but striving individuals find basic needs - security, community, bonds - difficult to attain. Kind to her characters, but never blind to their iffy choices or restrictive circumstances, McWatt gradually grants the members of this loosely interrelated tribe some respite. Her generous vision suggests that people might not get exactly what they desire, but, since the world's a huge, complicated place, it may provide them with something else, something ultimately beneficial.' Maclean's 'Wonderful narration. Wonderful map of the archipelago. Embark and discover it!' John Berger