Finalist for the 2004 Booker Prize
An Economist Best Book of 2004

Colette Jones has had problems of her own with alcohol, but now it seems as though her whole family is in danger of turning to booze. Her oldest son, Janus, the family's golden boy, has wasted his talents as a concert pianist. His drinking sprees with his brother-in-law, Bill, a pseudo-Marxist supermarket butcher who sees alcohol as central to the proletarian revolution, have turned violent and landed him in trouble with the police. Meanwhile, Colette's recently widowed older brother is desperate to numb his grief. This is a darkly funny novel about a quirky, troubled family as it lurches from farce to tragedy to pub and back again.

"Meet the Joneses — a suburban London family you could never keep up with at the pub. Excessive drinking is a way of life for several of them, including the brilliant pianist son, his dour, newly widowed uncle, and eventually Aldous, who could be called the family patriarch if this motley collection of people, bound by genetics and affection, had a strong traditional structure. But this lyrical novel, set in 1970s England and a finalist for the Booker Prize, reveals just how untethered to each other individuals living under the same roof can become. The mother, Colette, is the heroine, a woman not without weaknesses herself, who tries vainly to care for her brother and to believe the best of her son. Woodward resists any temptation to aggrandize Colette, and, indeed, all the characters are portrayed plainly, but in a matter-of-fact style that leaves their motivations murky. No doubt plenty of families like the Joneses exist, but the reader's expectation of some redemption and evolution can't be ignored. The steady downward slide of a family, even one as finely sketched as this one, doesn't make for uplifting reading. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Woodward is absolutely unsentimental, and he makes no excuses for his characters — but his unflinching, dispassionate attention is itself a kind of grace. Intensely humane and elegantly written." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"A loving and harrowing account of the havoc alcohol can wreak on a family." Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review

"The narrative is mind-bogglingly crisp, resourceful and sometimes hilarious....Remarkable." Sunday Times (London)

"Far above the ordinary. Woodward's characters are wonderfully complex and rich." London Telegraph

Colette Jones has had problems of her own with alcohol, but now it seems as though her whole family is in danger of turning to booze. This is a darkly funny novel about a quirky, troubled family as it lurches from farce to tragedy to pub and back again.

Gerard Woodward is a poet and the author of the Whitbread finalist August. He has received the Somerset Maugham Award and lives in England.