People Person: From the bestselling author of Book of the Year Queenie comes a story of heart and humour

Description

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of QUEENIE comes a propulsive story of heart, humour, homecoming. People Person is a triumph. Caleb Azumah Nelson Wonderful. Marian Keyes I loved it. Sara Collins IF YOU COULD CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY... YOU WOULDN'T CHOOSE THE PENNINGTONS. Dimple Pennington knew of her half siblings, but she didn't really know them. Five people who don't have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad's gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about. She's thirty, and her life isn't really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple's life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she's never felt more alone. That is, until a catastrophic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce crashing back into her life. And when they're all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated. From the Sunday Times bestselling author of QUEENIE comes a propulsive story of heart, humour, homecoming, and about the truest meaning of family you can get when your dad loves his jeep more than he loves his children.

Candice Carty-Williams was born in 1989, the result of an affair between a Jamaican cab driver and a dyslexic Jamaican-Indian receptionist. She is a journalist, screenwriter, and author of the Sunday Times bestselling Queenie, a book described as 'vital', 'disarmingly honest' and 'boldly political'. In 2016, Candice created and launched the Guardian and 4th Estate BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) Short Story Prize, the first inclusive initiative of its kind in book publishing. As a journalist she has written for the Guardian, i-D, Vogue International, every iteration of the Sunday Times, BEAT Magazine, Black Ballad and more. She will probably always live in South London. She can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @CandiceC_W.

Wonderful. People Person is about 5 half-siblings (1 dad, 4 mothers) who, in response to a crisis, meet as adults and start shaping themselves into a family. It's a warm novel, funny and full of emotional intelligence. The tone is light-hearted, even comic at times, but underneath there's an undertow, a steady drumbeat reminding us of all the microaggressions black people experience on a daily basis - and that white people are mostly oblivious of. I cannot recommend it highly enough. * Marian Keyes * People Person is a triumph. I was so moved by this tender, often humorous, portrait of these five siblings, their burgeoning relationships and all their complexities. I loved every one of these beautifully rendered characters and I'm sure the world will too. I couldn't put it down. * Caleb Azumah Nelson * People Person is fresh, funny and tender - Candice is the voice British fiction needs. * Pandora Sykes * People Person is a portrait of a family that is as poignant as it is hilarious. It had me belly-laughing, then picking up my jaw from the floor, then nodding in delighted agreement. Candice is a writer who is not only revealing modern Britain with each of her novels; she is defining it. Cyril Pennington is a character for the ages, but this story truly belongs to the children he never managed to parent. I loved it. * Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton * I loved People Person. Candice is so gifted at pulling you in as a writer. The storyline is hugely arresting and I was gripped immediately. Candice is remarkably perceptive in the way she writes people; her characters that are so well drawn, and so believable. When I wasn't reading People Person I was thinking about it and I had to finish it at the earliest opportunity. * Annie MacManus, author of Mother, Mother * People Person is more than just the title of this phenomenal second novel. It's a statement of intent. It's a declaration that when Candice Carty-Williams writes she captures the hearts and minds of readers everywhere. * Melissa Cummings-Quarry, Black Girls Book Club * The Pennington's are a large, messy family and I got to know each member intimately. This is an expertly crafted novel about family secrets that kept me on my toes from start to finish. * Liv Little * A dark comedy full of zinging dialogue and all the consolations and complications of family. A treat. * Jesse Armstrong * As warm and infectious, as familiar and true as Queenie. A funny and touching study of sibling relationships. * Diana Evans * It's a funny, heartwarming story of inheritance, kinship and influencer culture, told through one dysfunctional south London family, and as with Queenie, a maddening but loveable protagonist. Candice puts in print the word on the street; her eye is on a thriving Afro-Caribbean social and lyrical tradition. * Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk * People Person is a fresh blend of brilliant wit, delicious drama, and all the ways family ties can be strained and strengthened. I fell head over heels for the Penningtons, quirks, flaws, and all. * Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl * People Person makes explicit the extremity of inheritance. It's a funny, vibrant exploration of the failures that happen among family and it asks difficult questions about healing and what we owe blood. * Raven Leilani, author of Luster * Carty-Williams has written another big-hearted blockbuster that will make her many fans smile and ache. She paints a vivid picture of the pressures on young people in modern Britain and a poignant one of how a vulnerable outsider can, with the right network, find a sense of belonging and self-acceptance. * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Where Candice reigns is in writing humorous speech... poignant. * OBSERVER * Funny, tender, poignant...everything you'd expect from Carty-Williams * EVENING STANDARD * Delivering a great second novel after a stellar debut is a big ask, but Queenie author Carty-Williams has done just that. * HEAT, Book of the Week * Carty-Williams's prose is snappy and propulsive, full of busy, telegenic set-pieces * GUARDIAN *