The Friday Gospels
The Friday Gospels
paperback
Published:
18 July, 2013
Popular Books by Jenn Ashworth
View All Books by Jenn Ashworth
Description
It's Friday in the Leeke household, but this is no ordinary Friday and the Leekes are a little unusual: they are Lancastrian Mormons, and this evening their son Gary will return from 2 years as a missionary in Salt Lake City.
His mother is planning a celebratory dinner - with difficulty, since she's virtually housebound with an undiagnosed, embarrassing condition. What she doesn't realise is that the rest of the family - her meek husband, disturbed oldest son, and teenage daughter - have other plans for the evening, each involving drastic and irrevocable action.
As the narrative baton passes from one Leeke to the next, disaster inexorably looms. Except that nothing goes according to plan, and the outcome is as unexpected as it is shocking. Giving a fascinating insight into the Mormon way of life, this blackly funny tale of innocence betrayed shows the havoc religion can wreak.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781444707748 |
| ISBN10 | 1444707744 |
| Number Of Pages | 336 |
| Item Weight | 268 g |
| Product Dimensions | 128 x 198 x 26 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Utterly, compulsively readable, [it] could be this award-winning young author's best novel yet. * The Sunday Times *
A serious, distinctive and eminently readable story of faith and family; about the demands of the world and the desires of the individual. * Independent on Sunday *
Ashworth's most confident work yet and one that strengthens her reputation as an author worth watching. * Sunday Telegraph *
A serious novel seriously engaged with big themes. It is also very funny. * Andrew Miller, author of PURE *
It is rare to find a novel that is so complex, so damn clever and yet at once readable... a truly exceptional novel. * Helen Walsh, author of BRASS *
Jenn Ashworth's The Friday Gospels will make a nicely unsettling poolside read. Brought up in a Mormon family, here she turns her fictional talents to the Church of Latter-day Saints, both its dark and its hilarious sides. -- Mary Beard, Summer Reads * Observer *
Grim and comic in equal measures, this is an acutely observer account of growing up as a Latter-day Saint in Lancashire * Observer *
Ashworth's darkly comic third novel concerns the unravelling of a close-knit Mormon family in Lancashire, and evolves into a sympathetic, forgiving and absorbing portrait of family life. * Daily Telegraph *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Jenn Ashworth is the author of the novels A Kind of Intimacy, which won a Betty Trask Award, Cold Light, The Friday Gospels, Fell and Ghosted: A Love Story, which was shortlisted for the Portico Prize. In 2011, she was featured on BBC Two's The Culture Show as one of the twelve Best New British Novelists. She has also written a memoir-in-essays, Notes Made While Falling, which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.