Mirror World of Melody Black - Couverture souple

BBC Radio 2's Book Club with Simon Mayo listeners: (-)

'A book of substance. The characters will stay with you' (Simon Mayo)

'If we do a better book in our book club this year we'll have done very well. I'm a huge fan of this book... I love it' (Matt Williams, Simon Mayo Book Club)

'My top book club book ever, I just love it. Abby the character is a triumph' (Rebecca Pike, Simon Mayo Book Club)

'From the first sentence I well spellbound. Hard to put down. Imagine a cross between Bridget Jones' Diary and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (Lily, Simon Mayo Book Club listener)

'Love it! Even better book than Alex Woods. I can't recommend this book enough. It's like nothing else I've ever read in recent years, and it will stay with me for a long time' (Sally, Simon Mayo Book Club listener)

'I was engrossed in Abby's life. I would definitely recommend this book to others' (Pat, Simon Mayo Book Club listener)

'Finely drawn characters. Cleverly woven narrative. I hope it receives the plaudits it deserves' (Patrick, Simon Mayo Book Club listener)

'[Extence] captures how the illness feels from the inside with sensitivity and sparkling humour. In Abby he has created a warm, funny and relatable heroine' (Daily Express)

The quality of [Extence's] writing is high and often hilarious (Irish Daily Mail)

'Insightful and sensitive, Extence describes with the lightest of touches what it's like to live with bipolar' (Sunday Express)

'Extence really brings Abby to life in this honest, uequivocal narrative...There is something curiously cathartic about this book, as well as having the bravery, touching honesty and memorable protagonist that Extence is making his trademark' (Heat)

'Author Gavin Extence's funny and dark second novel is your commute's saviour' (Stylist)

'[Abby's] at the heart of Gavin Extence's sensitive, witty second novel. The immediacy of his writing draws you into Abby's world, and cleverly shows how fine the line is that separates what we call 'normal' from not' (Psychologies)

It all starts, as these things sometimes do, with a dead man.

He was a neighbour, not someone Abby knew well, but still, finding a body when you only came over to borrow a tin of tomatoes, that comes as a bit of a shock.

At least, it should.

And now she can't shake the feeling that if she hadn't gone into Simon's flat, if she'd had her normal Wednesday night instead, then none of what happened next would have happened.

And she would never have met Melody Black . . .

Wild and witty, searing and true, THE MIRROR WORLD OF MELODY BLACK is about the fine line that separates normal from not - and how life can spin, very swiftly, out of control.

'From the first sentence I well spellbound. Hard to put down. Imagine a cross between Bridget Jones' Diary and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Simon Mayo Book Club

'Rich, insightful, darkly serious yet also upliftingly funny' Jasper Fforde

[author photo]

Gavin Extence lives in Sheffield with his wife, children and cat.