Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

A.L. Kennedy

Serious Sweet: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Hardcover – 13 June 2016

by A.L. Kennedy (Author)

29 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$14.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$8.89

—

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

A good man in a bad world, Jon Sigurdsson is 59 and divorced- a senior civil servant in Westminster who hates many of his colleagues and loathes his work for a government engaged in unmentionable acts. A man of conscience.

Meg Williams is 'a bankrupt accountant - two words you don't want in the same sentence, or anywhere near your CV'. She's 45 and shakily sober, living on Telegraph Hill, where she can see London unfurl below her. Somewhere out there is safety.

Somewhere out there is Jon, pinballing around the city with a mobile phone and a letter-writing habit he can't break. He's a man on the brink, leaking government secrets and affection as he runs for his life.

Set in 2014, this is a novel of our times. Poignant, deeply funny, and beautifully written, Serious Sweet is about two decent, damaged people trying to make moral choices in an immoral world- ready to sacrifice what's left of themselves for honesty, and for a chance at tenderness. As Jon and Meg navigate the sweet and serious heart of London - passing through 24 hours that will change them both for ever - they tell a very unusual, unbearably moving love story.

Product details

Publisher : JONATHAN CAPE & BH - TRADE (13 June 2016)
Language : English
Hardcover : 528 pages
ISBN-10 : 0224098446
ISBN-13 : 978-0224098441
Dimensions : 16.2 x 4.4 x 24 cm

Customer Reviews:
29 ratings

Product description

Review

"Kennedy tenderly anatomised London and loneliness in Serious Sweet." (Ali Smith Guardian, Book of the Year)

"So beautiful that it makes your head hurt." (Katy Guest Independent)

"Serious Sweet is a magnificent novel, showing Kennedy at the very top of her game. Ambitious in scope, daring in execution, full of dazzling apercus and dark comedy… It is a tale of redemption, as serious and as sweet as you could wish for." (Rebecca Abrams Financial Times)

"In equal measures, funny, sad and addictive… The opening pages had me holding my breath in fear and anticipation… Capturing the relentless hustle of London life to perfection." (Glenda Marchant Stylist)

"A. L. Kennedy shakes her city until the right atoms collide. She stands back to give a picture of the whole of London on one day, and then suddenly swoops down to pick up a tiny detail." (Kate Saunders The Times)

"Deeply affecting... Kennedy strips her characters emotionally bare… Serious Sweet portrays intense lives of quiet desperation: it is a novel about hope and muted courage and, at the end of the day, a very tentatively experienced optimism." (Hannah Beckerman Observer)

"A. L. Kennedy's eighth novel is a profoundly moving, often funny, and at points rending depiction of two good people. Serious Sweet is about the heroism of decency; albeit damaged decency... Kennedy is not one of our finest writers simply because of the quality of her prose: she is because of the moral profundity of her work." (Stuart Kelly Scotsman)

"This is a bold, cinematic novel... Parts of it are terrifically funny." (Herald)

"A genuinely stirring love story." (Mail on Sunday)

"Her flair for describing feelings and relationships makes this an engaging window into the messy minds of Londoners and her commentary on the city rings true." (Susannah Butter Evening Standard)

Book Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

A topical London love story from the brilliant, prize-winning A. L. Kennedy

5 star		32%
4 star		7%
3 star		14%
2 star		24%
1 star		22%

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top reviews from other countries

Lyn G Farrell

Stick with this novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 July 2018

Verified Purchase

Oh, I just love it when I falter at the start of a book, and almost give up, but then try again and become utterly absorbed.
Wonderful storytelling, astonishing use of description and language, astute analysis of the complexity of love and political action, and spot on with her depiction of our struggles to make meaning of the world.

2 people found this helpful

carrie

Not as good as I was hoping

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2017

Verified Purchase

This sounded like my kind of thing, but I found that there was a lot of stuff (presented in italics as the characters' thoughts) which didn't really add to the plot and just seemed like the author had an axe to grind about the workings of the civil service. Disappointing.

ziggyme2

Quirky, satirical and entertaining.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 December 2018

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this. She is such a clever, funny and thoughtful writer and her observations about today's politicians are spot on.

M kensa 56

Hard read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 December 2018

Verified Purchase

Very hard read. Reading for book club but most of us gave up!

One person found this helpful

K. Willis

A polished gem

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2019

Verified Purchase

What a writer! Just downloaded another 4 books because I loved this one so much. A wordsmith extraordinaire. Blown away!

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Serious Sweet: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Hardcover – 13 June 2016

Product details

Product description

Review

Book Description

About the Author

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top reviews from Australia

Top reviews from other countries