This is Paradise

'Eaves is brilliant about the unspoken conspiracies that bind the average family together. I'm placing bets for some major prizes' The Times The Alldens live in a ramshackle house in suburban Bath. Don and Emily have four children: confident Liz, satirical Clive, shy Lotte, and Benjamin, the late arrival. Together they take the usual knocks, go to work, go abroad, go to university, go to pieces. Don and Emily stick it out, their strong marriage tested by experience and frustrated by love for Clive, the ardent boxing fan at odds with himself, their special child. But then ordinary is special, too, as the Alldens will discover thirty years later when Emily falls ill and her children come home to say goodbye. Their unforgettable story is an intimate record of survival that is tender, funny and ultimately heartbreaking. 'Intricately rendered snapshots of family life through the years ...Eaves has a real gift for nuanced observation' Observer 'A British counterpart [to Franzen's The Corrections] ...This is a novel that should resonate with every contemporary family' Sunday Times