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  • Published: 18 August 2020
  • ISBN: 9780552997348
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $24.99

Emotionally Weird




The hilarious third novel by the number one bestselling author of Life After Life – the ultimate 1970s campus novel.

From the NUMBER 1 bestselling author of LIFE AFTER LIFE, SHRINES OF GAIETY and NORMAL RULES DON'T APPLY

On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories.

Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers).

But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Why is everyone writing novels? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?

'Sends jolts of pleasure off the page...Kate Atkinson's funniest foray yet...it is a work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty' SCOTSMAN

'A brilliant and profoundly original writer' DAILY TELEGRAPH

  • Published: 18 August 2020
  • ISBN: 9780552997348
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Kate Atkinson

KATE ATKINSON is one of the world’s foremost novelists. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Life After Life, an acclaimed BBC TV series, won several prizes including the Costa Novel Award, as did A God in Ruins. Two further historical novels – Transcription and Shrines of Gaiety - were also Sunday Times bestsellers. She has published two critically acclaimed collections of short stories: Not the End of the World and Normal Rules Don’t Apply.

Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog, became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Jackson Brodie later returned in the novel Big Sky and the most recent, Death at the Sign of the Rook, was a number one bestseller.

Kate Atkinson was awarded an MBE in 2011 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

For information about Kate’s books, including her Jackson Brodie series, visit www.kateatkinson.co.uk

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Praise for Emotionally Weird

The lustre, energy and panache of her writing are as striking as ever...Funny, bold and memorable

Helen Dunmore, The Times

Beautifully written...brimming with quirky characters and original storytelling. Kate Atkinson has struck gold with this unique offering

Time Out

Sends jolts of pleasure off the page...Atkinson's funniest foray yet...it is a work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty

The Scotsman

A truly comic novel - achingly funny in parts - challenging and executed with wit and mischief...hilarious and magical

Meera Syal, Daily Express

Her novels are remarkable both in and of themselves, and as evidence of an important emerging body of work from a brilliant and profoundly original writer

Daily Telegraph

With just two novels, Atkinson has added new colour to the British literary landscape

Guardian