By the author of Ducks, Newburyport, shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize, Goldsmiths Prize and Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award

Bach, sculpture, plastic surgery, public speaking and a New York love story like no other - this is Lucy Ellmann’s most extraordinary work of art to date

‘Bolshy, life-affirming, feminist and energetic. It makes you long to chuck your job, gulp oysters and run naked through the surf’ Sunday Times

‘A wildly hilarious, modern film noir in fiction form’ Sunday Telegraph

It’s Christmas Eve in Manhattan.

Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good. ‘Ya can’t sit there all day, buddy, looking up people’s skirts!’ chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi! She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi.

Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life’s work, a List of Melancholy Things (Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests…). But when he receives a dreaded invitation to address his old school, Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos. She and Harrison fall emphatically in love.

And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air.