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Mum & Dad / Joanna Trollope.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London, England : Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Description: 324 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781529003390 (paperback)
Other title:
  • Mum and Dad
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: It's been twenty-five years since Gus and Monica left England to start a new life in Spain, building a vineyard and wine business from the ground up. However, when Gus suffers a stroke and their idyllic Mediterranean life is thrown into upheaval, it's left to their three grown-up children in London to step in. Sebastian is busy running his company with his wife, Anna, who's never quite seen eye-to-eye with her mother-in-law. Katie, a successful solicitor in the City, is distracted by the problems with her long-term partner, Nic, and the secretive lives of their three daughters. And Jake, ever the easy-going optimist, is determined to convince his new wife, Bella that moving to Spain with their eighteen-month-old would be a good idea. As the children descend on the vineyard, it becomes clear that each has their own idea of how best to handle their mum and dad, as well as the family business. But as long-simmering resentments rise to the surface and tensions reach breaking point, can the family ties prove strong enough to keep them together?
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection TROL Available T00834744
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Their parents made a choice years ago. Now they're counting on the children to step in. After so much time, can old wounds heal? Mum & Dad by the Sunday Times bestseller Joanna Trollope is a wise, brilliantly drawn examination of a modern family dilemma.



"What a mess, she thought now . . . what a bloody, unholy mess the whole family has got itself into."



It's been 25 years since Gus and Monica left England to start a new life in Spain, building a vineyard and wine business from the ground up. However, when Gus suffers a stroke and their idyllic Mediterranean life is thrown into upheaval, it's left to their three grown-up children in London to step in . . . Sebastian is busy running his company with his wife, Anna, who's never quite seen eye-to-eye with her mother-in-law. Katie, a successful solicitor in the City, is distracted by the problems with her long-term partner, Nic, and the secretive lives of their three daughters. And Jake, ever the easy-going optimist, is determined to convince his new wife, Bella, that moving to Spain with their 18-month-old would be a good idea. As the children descend on the vineyard, it becomes clear that each has their own idea of how best to handle their mum and dad, as well as the family business. But as long-simmering resentments rise to the surface and tensions reach breaking point, can the family ties prove strong enough to keep them together?

"Sometimes your parents don't know best"--Cover.

It's been twenty-five years since Gus and Monica left England to start a new life in Spain, building a vineyard and wine business from the ground up. However, when Gus suffers a stroke and their idyllic Mediterranean life is thrown into upheaval, it's left to their three grown-up children in London to step in. Sebastian is busy running his company with his wife, Anna, who's never quite seen eye-to-eye with her mother-in-law. Katie, a successful solicitor in the City, is distracted by the problems with her long-term partner, Nic, and the secretive lives of their three daughters. And Jake, ever the easy-going optimist, is determined to convince his new wife, Bella that moving to Spain with their eighteen-month-old would be a good idea. As the children descend on the vineyard, it becomes clear that each has their own idea of how best to handle their mum and dad, as well as the family business. But as long-simmering resentments rise to the surface and tensions reach breaking point, can the family ties prove strong enough to keep them together?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Sudden illness impacts three generations of a family in Trollope's rewarding latest (after An Unsuitable Match). British expats Gus and Monica Beacham have run a successful vineyard in southern Spain since 1993. When a stroke leaves Gus temporarily mute and incapacitated, the couple's three adult children, all of whom live in England, must help Monica keep the business functioning. Jake, 38, the youngest of the three, decides to move his reluctant wife, Bella, and their infant daughter to Spain while masterminding a risky new vineyard expansion. Though his siblings Sebastian and Katie are puzzled by Jake's eagerness to leave England behind, they're too overwhelmed by their own lives not to be grateful for his initiative. Sebastian feels insecure and unimportant compared to his overachieving wife, and Katie struggles to balance a demanding legal career with care for a daughter who self-harms. As Gus confronts his new limits, Monica discovers that his frustration makes him even more stubborn and irritable than before, while Gus himself is angered by Jake's high-handed decisions. Trollope's warmhearted but unsentimental storytelling reveals her characters' flaws but also their capacity to change. This insightful look at the family tensions that develop as parents age will please the author's fans and resonate with a wide variety of readers. (May)

Booklist Review

All families have issues, and they often track from generation to generation. Monica, matriarch of the Beacham family, loves her morning view of the Rock of Gibraltar. She's more ambivalent about her husband, Gus. When he's diminished by a stroke, daughter Katie and sons Sebastian and Jake arrive from London. A quarter of a century earlier, the family of five abandoned England and Gus' emasculating father for Spain, where Gus hardscrabbled a now award-winning vineyard out of rough ground. Alternating between the points of view of Monica, Katie, Sebastian, and Jake, Trollope (Sense & Sensibility, 2013) explores the fraught family dynamics that ensue. Old wounds, secrets, modern-day parenting nightmares, the changing roles and expectations of women, relationship challenges, and the vagaries of aging weave throughout the story. How will Monica and Gus cope with their new normal? Will each sibling's family survive long-simmering problems? Will the vineyard? In our own difficult time requiring social distancing, Trollope offers a warmhearted testament to the essential importance and restorative power of family.

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