Mr Lynch's Holiday
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Mr Lynch's Holiday is the charming and comic new novel by the bestselling and prize-winning author of What Was Lost and The News Where You Are, Catherine O'Flynn.
'I'm looking forward to seeing you and Laura and getting my first taste of "abroad".'
Eamonn Lynch stares at the letter announcing the imminent arrival of his father, Dermot. His first thought is: I'll make an excuse, I'll put him off. But it is too late. Dermot is already here, in southern Spain, and soon he'll discover that Eamonn lives in an unfinished building site; that Laura's left him; and that it'll be just the two of them, father and son, for two long, hot weeks.
Dermot doesn't entirely recognise his son; how can he stay quite so long in bed? And where is Laura? Eamonn doesn't seem to know quite what to make of his father's arrival. On the other hand his neighbours - pushy and domineering Roger and Cheryl, smug but disillusioned property developers Becca and Ian - see in Dermot a respite from themselves.
Swept up in the British expats' ceaseless barbecuing and bickering, both father and son slowly discover the truth about each other and the family past. But at the same time they uncover a shocking, unacknowledged secret at the heart of this defiant but beleaguered community.
Mr Lynch's Holiday is a very funny and moving story about the clash of generations; about how families break apart and come together again; about how living "abroad" can feel less like a long holiday and more of a life sentence.
'An awesomely talented writer' Jonathan Coe
'A tenderness and warmth seep through . . . an astute and thoughtful writer, and her warm take on the world is pleasing' Sunday Times on The News Where You Are
'Darkly funny' Independent on Sunday on The News Where You Are
'A comic genius . . . entertaining and often thoughtful' Daily Mail on The News Where You Are
Catherine O'Flynn was born in 1970 and raised in Birmingham, the youngest of six children. Her parents ran a sweet shop. She worked briefly in journalism, then at a series of shopping centres. She has also been a web editor, a postwoman and a mystery shopper.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eamonn Lynch is recently separated from his longtime girlfriend Laura and is living alone in the couple's rundown condo in the ramshackle real-estate development of Lomaverde, Spain. About the last person he expects to see there is his father, Dermot, who's on a fortnight's holiday from Birmingham, England. Dermot, hoping for a change of scene following his wife's death and his recent retirement from his job as a bus driver, finds himself drawn to the dilapidated area, which reminds him of the Ireland of his childhood. Much to Eamonn's discomfort, Dermot is embraced by the other Lomaverde residents, British expatriates who feel trapped and resentful over being stuck with worthless property following Spain's economic downturn. O'Flynn (What Was Lost) skillfully balances absurdity with pathos, both in Eamonn's particular situation and in that of Lomaverde itself. Lomaverde, which one character calls "a place where you can admit to mistakes you have no choice but to," offers father and son the chance to repair themselves, if not their surroundings. Like her characters, O'Flynn has an eye for the beauty to be found amid squalor and chaos.
