Mr Loverman: From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

New
Paperback
2013
$11.59

Bernardine Evaristo's Mr Loverman: 'Brokeback Mountain with ackee and saltfish and old people' Dawn French Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away? Mr Loverman is a ground-breaking exploration of Britain's older Caribbean community, which explodes cultural myths and fallacies and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves. Praise for Bernardine Evaristo: 'One of Britain's most innovative authors . . . Bernardine Evaristo always dares to be different' New Nation 'Evaristo remains an undeniably bold and energetic writer, whose world view is anything but one-dimensional' Sunday Times 'Audacious genre-bending, in-yer-face wit and masterly retellings of underwritten corners of history are the hallmarks of Evaristo's work' New Statesman Bernardine Evaristo is the author of seven books including three critically acclaimed verse novels, Lara, The Emperor's Babe and Soul Tourists. Mr Loverman is her second prose novel, after 2008's Blonde Roots, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and won the Orange Prize Youth Panel Award. Evaristo's other awards include the EMMA Best Book, Arts Council Award and the Big Red Read Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an MBE in 2009. She lives in London.

Synopsis

Bernardine Evaristo's Mr Loverman: 'Brokeback Mountain with ackee and saltfish and old people' Dawn French Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away? Mr Loverman is a ground-breaking exploration of Britain's older Caribbean community, which explodes cultural myths and fallacies and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves. Praise for Bernardine Evaristo: 'One of Britain's most innovative authors . . . Bernardine Evaristo always dares to be different' New Nation 'Evaristo remains an undeniably bold and energetic writer, whose world view is anything but one-dimensional' Sunday Times 'Audacious genre-bending, in-yer-face wit and masterly retellings of underwritten corners of history are the hallmarks of Evaristo's work' New Statesman Bernardine Evaristo is the author of seven books including three critically acclaimed verse novels, Lara, The Emperor's Babe and Soul Tourists. Mr Loverman is her second prose novel, after 2008's Blonde Roots, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and won the Orange Prize Youth Panel Award. Evaristo's other awards include the EMMA Best Book, Arts Council Award and the Big Red Read Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an MBE in 2009. She lives in London.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 29 Aug 2013
ISBN 10: 0241145783
ISBN 13: 9780241145784

Media Reviews

Mr Loverman is hilarious, poignant, clever, controversial and courageous in equal measure. Loved, loved, loved it! -- Dawn French
A brave and important story . . . I enjoyed it enormously -- Jonathan Kemp, author of London Triptych
Bernardine Evaristo can take any story from any time and turn it into something vibrating with life -- Ali Smith
An undeniably bold and energetic writer, whose world view is anything but one-dimensional * Sunday Times *
This riproaring, full-bodied riff on sex, secrecy and family is Bernardine Evaristo's seventh book. If you don't yet know her work, you should - she says things about modern Britain that no one else does -- Maggie Gee * Guardian *
Evaristo has a lot going on in this unusual urban romance, but beneath her careful study of race and sexuality is a beautiful love story. Not many writers could have two old men having sexual intercourse in a bedsit to a soundtrack of Shabba Ranks's Mr Loverman and save it from bad taste, much less make it sublime. But the hero of this book, and his canny creator, make everything taste just fine * Daily Telegraph *
A pacey fable about summoning both the daring and the art to live a truthful life . . . her writing simply fizzes with musical energy * Express *
A brilliant study of great characters in modern London * Independent *
Funny, brave . . . I loved Mr Loverman -- Ian Thomson * Spectator *
Transforms our often narrow perceptions of gay men in England . . . Comical, agonising and, ultimately, moving * Independent *
Heartbreaking yet witty, this is a story that needed to be told -- Jackie Kay * Observer *

Author Bio

Bernardine Evaristo is the award-winning author of seven books and numerous other published works, spanning fiction, poetry, essays, literary criticism and drama. She has won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize among many others and is a Member of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, and an MBE.