The Songs

The Songs

by Charles Elton (Author)

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Mr Toppit, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick, comes a riotous, darkly comic story of siblings searching for the truth about their musician father - for fans of The Rosie Project, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Humans Iz Herzl, renowned political activist and protest singer, has always refused to dwell on the past. Now eighty, he sits in his house in Muswell Hill, while his lovers - some past, some present - dance attendance upon him. Downstairs, Iz's children - teenage maths wunderkind Rose, and her dying brother Huddie - spend their days picking through the myths and secrecy that have always swirled around their unknowable father. But Iz can't keep the past at bay forever. Into their lives comes Joseph: his first child, whom Rose and Huddie have never met. And his arrival will change things in ways that Rose and Huddie could never have anticipated...

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: 01
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 14 Jun 2018

ISBN 10: 1408882345
ISBN 13: 9781408882344
Book Overview: From the bestselling author of Mr Toppit, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick, comes a riotous, darkly comic story of siblings searching for the truth about their musician father - for fans of The Rosie Project, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Humans

Media Reviews
A bittersweet melody as heartbreaking as it is droll * Daily Mail *
This is a truly wonderful novel - heartbreaking, funny, and such a painful dissection of family life it makes one wince -- Deborah Moggach
Elton has an arch wit, an engaging style and a sense of invention that recalls Jonathan Coe's What a Carve Up! * Evening Standard on Mr Toppit *
This is an extraordinary debut, not only for its confident storytelling but for its nerdish familiarity with such an eclectic range of subjects ... Dark, funny... jangly with secrets * Sunday Times *
Mr Toppit is miles ahead of most debut novels and makes an engrossing, moving and perceptive read ... Quite a ride * The Times *
A chillingly mingled hit of love, need and dread * Independent *
A masterly tale of quiet torment * Sunday Telegraph *
Partly Royal Tenenbaums-style saga of dysfunctional family... part coming-of-age tale ... and part satire on the iniquities of celebrity and hype * Observer *
Poignant and engaging * Mail on Sunday *
Aficionados from all parts of N10 will no doubt pounce on Charles Elton's tale of a radical patriarch sitting bethroned mong admirers from old summers - and winters - of love but about to be rained on by his firstborn * Jewish Chronicle *
Author Bio
Charles Elton was a director of the literary agency Curtis Brown before becoming an independent TV producer in 1991. In 2000 he joined ITV as executive producer in drama and left in 2010 when his bestselling first novel Mr Toppit, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick, was published. He lives in London and Somerset. The Songs is his second novel.