The Wall (32 page)

Authors: William Sutcliffe

BOOK: The Wall

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This novel owes a great debt to Alexandra Pringle, the consummate editor. It could not have been written without my participation in the Palestine Festival of Literature, for which I would like to thank Ahdaf Soueif and the Palfest Committee. My thanks also to: Felicity Rubinstein, Daniel Chalfen, Anna Steadman, Emily Sweet, Fred Schlomka, Yahav Zohar, Raja Shehadeh, the four families in the West Bank who offered me their hospitality during my research, Adam, John and Susan Sutcliffe, and, above all, more than ever, Maggie O’Farrell.

A Note on the Author

William Sutcliffe was born in London in 1971. He is the author of five previous novels: the international bestseller
Are You Experienced
;
The Love Hexagon
;
New Boy
;
Bad Influence
and, most recently,
Whatever Makes You Happy
. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in Edinburgh.

By the Same Author

New Boy

Are You Experienced?

The Love Hexagon

Bad Influence

Whatever Makes You Happy

Bad Influence

‘
Painfully funny, wonderfully vivid, truly menacing
’ Daily Telegraph

‘
Dark, witty ... brilliantly dramatizes the human craving for approval and strong leadership and the lengths we’ll go to satisfy it
’ Kazuo Ishiguro, Observer

Meet Carl: cruel, fun, exciting - a bit older than you, and totally in control.

Your best friend, Ollie, likes Carl – maybe even more than he likes you. You don’t want to lose Ollie, so you tag along: playing Carl’s games, doing what he says, getting into trouble.

But how far will Carl go before he stops? And just how bad does he have to get before you say No?

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Whatever Makes You Happy

‘
Everyone in my family, from my teenage daughter to my husband and mother-in-law, has got something out of it besides laughter
’ Independent

‘
Very funny ... A convincing, moving portrait of an evolving relationship between mother and adult son
’ Guardian

Matt, Daniel and Paul were childhood friends. Now in their thirties, they've lost touch and have only one thing in common: their mothers. Little do they know that, having spent a cardless Mother's Day discussing how their emotionally dysfunctional offspring should be settling down, Carol, Gillian and Helen have decided to pay their wayward sons a visit. On the same day, they turn up on their sons' doorsteps, uninvited and unannounced. Their plan is to reestablish the mother-son bond by moving in for one week. Just a week. Surely that's not a lot to ask...

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Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney

First published in Great Britain 2013

This electronic edition published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The moral right of the author has been asserted

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