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  • Published: 4 August 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241970546
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

To Be Continued




A madcap Highland adventure about surviving midlife crisis and finding redemption in the unlikeliest of places

Douglas Findhorn Elder is in a sorry state. He's just turned fifty, split up with his girlfriend and been pushed out of his job at the local news rag. On the night of his birthday, he makes an unexpected new friend: a talking toad.

Setting aside the obvious problem, Mungo the toad is the most sensible person Douglas has met for years. And when the man gets embroiled in a wild-goose chase that leads him out of Edinburgh and across the country, naturally the toad goes with him. Awaiting the duo at crumbling Glentaragar Manor are a hundred-year-old firebrand grandmother, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, an elaborate whisky-smuggling conspiracy, and maybe even a shot at redemption . . .

This gloriously surreal romp proves once and for all that the important things in life - friendship, romance, a funeral hearse stuffed with crates of bootlegged whisky - come when you least expect them.

  • Published: 4 August 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241970546
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

About the author

James Robertson

James Robertson is the author of four previous novels, The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack and And the Land Lay Still. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, picked by Richard and Judy's Book Club, and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year award. And the Land Lay Still was the winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award 2010.

Also by James Robertson

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Praise for To Be Continued

A real romp of a road novel featuring a talking toad. I can't wait

Val McDermid, The Observer

To Be Continued, with its harem-scarem scenarios and surreal twists, was written to entertain.

Sunday Herald

A wildly eccentric tale laced with dry, deprecating wit

The Times

Funny and fun ... To Be Continued manages to be sad and happy at the same time. You can engage with the post-modern games and references if you like, or you can just sit back and laugh, and cry. A Scottish baroque novel, full of tricks and trinkets, written with warmth and wit.

The National

Joyful, warm-hearted, funny ... but buried within are serious points about the stories we tell about ourselves, how history shapes our identity, scarred landscapes and self-selecting communities. In heartsore times we need more books like this.

Guardian

Publisher's description. A madcap Highland adventure about midlife crises, new friends, and second chances. Douglas Findhorn Elder is fifty years old, recently dumped and suddenly jobless. Mungo Forth Mungo is a talking toad. And as luck would have it, this toad is determined to help his hapless human chum to sort his life out...

Penguin

Robertson manages to skilfully join the quirky with the serious; the surreal with the real. His take on contemporary Scotland is insightful, eccentric and highly readable.

The Scotsman