SERIOUS SWEET

Set in London in 2014, Serious Sweet is truly a novel of our times, of people searching for connections in a disconnected world, of trying to do the right thing when so much feels wrong. It is ineffably poignant and deeply funny, just as one would expect from the inimitable A.L. Kennedy.

Jon Sigurdsson is a good man in a bad world. Being a senior civil servant and a man of conscience, his professional life is one of misery and self-loathing. Being a loving man almost incapable of expressing love, his private life is one of awkwardness and unfulfilled desire. He turns his skill with language – with which he so adeptly protects and promotes his political bosses – to the task of writing love letters, pseudonymously and for a modest fee, to women seeking tenderness. One of these women is Meg Williams, who has just reached her first birthday as a non-drinking alcoholic. When Meg hunts down the author of her letters and confronts Jon, it can only be the beginning of a very unusual love story.