Marina Lewycka

Lentils, free love, radical politics and family truths . . . Various Pets Alive and Dead is the wonderfully funny fourth novel from Marina Lewycka, author of the bestselling A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. For twenty years Doro and Marcus lived in a commune, convinced lentils and free love would change the world. They didn't. What they did do was give their children a terror of radicalism, dirt, cooking rotas and poverty. Their daughter Clara wants nothing less conformist than her own, clean bathroom. Their son Serge hides the awkward fact that he's a banker earning loadsamoney. So when Doro and Marcus spring a surprise on their kids - just as the world is rocked in ways they always wished for - the family is forced to confront some thorny truths about themselves . . .'Wonderfully funny . . . a dizzy, eye-watering treat . . . Lewycka is somewhere between Hilary Mantel in her satirical mode and Sue Townsend' Independent'Thank heavens for Marina Lewycka whose Various Pets Alive and Dead me laugh at least once in every chapter . . . The warmth of its tone, its zest, its blend of quirky, humane comedy and intellectual seriousness make this a novel to treasure' New Statesman'Marina Lewycka's latest novel is wonderfully funny with moments of pure farce in the best tradition of social satire . . . this inventive and witty book fizzes along from beginning to end' Daily ExpressMarina Lewycka was born in Kiel, Germany, after the war, grew up in England and lives in Sheffield. Her first novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, longlisted for the Man Booker and won the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction and the Waverton Good Read Award. Her second novel, Two Caravans, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Two Caravans and Marina's third novel, We Are All Made of Glue, are all available in Penguin

Two unaccompanied children travel across the Mediterranean in an overcrowded boat that has been designed to only make it halfway across... A 63-year-old man is woken one morning by border officers 'acting on a tip-off' and, despite having paid taxes for 28 years, is suddenly cast into the detention system with no obvious means of escape... An orphan whose entire life has been spent in slavery - first on a Ghanaian farm, then as a victim of trafficking - writes to the Home Office for help, only to be rewarded with a jail sentence and indefinite detention... These are not fictions. Nor are they testimonies from some distant, brutal past, but the frighteningly common experiences of Europe's new underclass - its refugees. While those with "citizenship" enjoy basic human rights (like the right not to be detained without charge for more than 14 days), people seeking asylum can be suspended for years in Kafka-esque uncertainty. Here, poets and novelists retell the stories of individuals who have direct experience of Britain's policy of indefinite immigration detention. Presenting their accounts anonymously, as modern day counterparts to the pilgrims' stories in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, this book offers rare, intimate glimpses into otherwise untold suffering.

"Två år efter att min mamma hade dött blev min pappa kär i en tjusig blond ukrainsk frånskild kvinna. Han var åttiofyra och hon var trettiosex. Hon briserade in i våra liv som en skär fluffig bomb, rörde om i de grumliga vattnen, rev upp ett slam av gamla begravda minnen till ytan och gav familjespökena en rejäl känga i baken." När deras ukrainske far, nybliven änkling, meddelar att han tänker gifta om sig, inser systrarna Vera och Nadezjda att de måste sätta punkt för en livslång fiendskap för att rädda honom. Hans nya kärlek är en yppig lycksökerska från Ukraina. Hon är hälften så gammal som han, hyser förkärlek för underkläder i grönt siden och för färdiglagad mat från livsmedelsbutikens frysdisk. Inget hinder är för stort i hennes målmedvetna strävan efter den luxuösa västerländska livsstil hon alltid drömt om. Men den gamle mannen försöker också förverkliga sina excentriska drömmar - och skriver en historia om traktorer på ukrainska. Marina Lewyckas succéroman från 2006 är på nytt aktuell med ett nyskrivet förord av författaren. Författaren, agenten och Norstedts skänker alla intäkter från boken till Charities Aid Foundation och deras särskilt riktade insats mot Ukraina. Romanen är en ömsint och mycket rolig berättelse om familjer, läkning av gamla sår, ålderdomens prövningar och glädjeämnen och - faktiskt - om Europas historiska arv under de senaste femtio åren.

A LAUGH-OUT-LOUD NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIANAfter walking out on his wife to shack up with 'Brexit Brenda' next door, George Pantis thinks he's got it made - especially when he wins millions on a Kosovan lottery he barely remembers entering. Unfortunately, he can't access the money because he's forgotten his password. What is he meant to tell all the forceful people who keep appearing at his doorstep desperate to know his mother's maiden name? The situation is shadier than he thinks, and George is need of rescue. But will his dysfunctional family be able to save him, and in the process, can they save each other? ______________________________________________________'Lewycka has carved out a reputation for tackling Big Topics with wit and humour' Radio Times'Warmly funny' Daily Mail'Her state-of-the-nation novel crackles with zingy one-liners and shrewd humour' Mail on Sunday

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is bestselling author Marina Lewycka's hilarious and award winning debut novel, now available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.' Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth. But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . .'It's rare to find a first novel that gets so much right . . . Lewycka is a seriously talented comic writer' Time Out'Hugely enjoyable . . . yields a golden harvest of family truths' Daily Telegraph'Delightful, funny, touching' Spectator

'Lively . . . a joy to read' - The TimesShortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prizeFrom the bestselling author of A Short History of Tractors in UkrainianNorth London in the twenty-first century: a place where a son will swiftly adopt an old lady and take her home from hospital to impersonate his dear departed mother, rather than lose the council flat. A time of golden job opportunities, though you might have to dress up as a coffee bean or work as an intern at an undertaker or put up with champagne and posh French dinners while your boss hits on you. A place rich in language - whether it's Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Swahili or buxom housing officers talking managementese. A place where husbands go absent without leave and councillors sacrifice cherry orchards at the altar of new builds. Marina Lewycka is back in this hilarious, farcical, tender novel of modern issues and manners.

Marcus JA Doro olivat parikymmentä vuotta vasemmistokommuunin jäseniä, hoitivat puutarhapalstaansa ja uskoivat linssien sekä vapaan rakkauden maailmanparannusvoimaan. Vaikka heidän lapsensa kasvoivat vanhempiensa aatteiden, kotityövuorojen ja köyhyyden ympäröiminä, tuli heistä hyvin erilaisia. Esikouluopettaja Clara vaatii kuria ja puhdasta kylpyhuonetta. Serge esittää työstävänsä matematiikan väitöskirjaansa Cambridgessä, vaikka todellisuudessa takoo rahaa työssään pankissa. Kolmas lapsi Oolie Anna, jolla on downin syndrooma, pyrkii epätoivoisesti itsenäiseen elämään kodin ulkopuolelle. Valheiden vyyhti alkaa purkautua paljastaen perheenjäsenten vaietut salaisuudet. Marina Lewycka kirjoittaa realiteettien ja hippiliikkeen yhteentörmäyksestä uniikilla tyylillään farssia ja ironiaa yhdistellen.

Mansikanpoimijat ovat tulleet maailman eri kolkilta leveämmän leivän toivossa, pakoon oman kotimaansa köyhyyttä ja sosiaalisia ongelmia. Kertomus saa vähän kerrassaan traagisempia sävyjä, kun kirjailija kertoo nykyajan siirtotyöläisten kohtaloista ja kohtelusta modernin hyvinvointivaltion sokkeloissa.

We Are All Made of Glue is the wickedly funny third novel from bestselling author Marina Lewycka. Georgie Sinclair's life is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's obsessed with the End of the World. And now her elderly neighbour Mrs Shapiro has decided they are related. Or so the hospital informs her when Mrs Shapiro has an accident and names Georgie next of kin. This, however, is not a case of a quick ward visit: Mrs Shapiro has a large rickety house full of stinky cats that needs looking after and that a pair of estate agents seem intent on swindling from her. Plus there are the 'Uselesses' trying to repair it (uselessly). Then there's social worker who wants to put her in a nursing home. Not to mention some letters that point to a mysterious, painful past. As Georgie tries her best to put Mrs Shapiro's life back together somehow she much stop her own from falling apart. . . 'Vibrant dialogue, a family meltdown, a clash of cultures and a wonderful cast of expertly observed characters. Pure laugh-out-loud social comedy' Daily Mail 'Excellent, irresistible' Scotland on Sunday 'Hilarious. A big-hearted confection of the comic and the poignant' Literary Review 'A big, bustling novel, told with enthusiasm by a narrator who is warm, winningly disaster-prone and, crucially, believable' Spectator Bestselling author Marina Lewkyca has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her hilarious first novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian in 2005, which was the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005, winner of the Saga Award for Wit 2005, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 and longlisted for the Booker prize 2005. Her other humorous novels Two Caravans (published as Strawberry Fields in the USA and Canada) and Various Pets Alive and Dead are also available from Penguin.

Two Caravans is the hilarious and engaging second novel from bestselling author Marina Lewycka. A field of strawberries in Kent... And sitting in it are two caravans - one for the men and one for the women. The residents are from all over: miner's son Andriy is from the old Ukraine, while sexy young Irina is from the new: they each other warily. There are the Poles, Tomasz and Yola; two Chinese girls; and Emauel from Malawi. They're all here to pick strawberries in England's green and pleasant land. But these days England's not so pleasant for immigrants. Not with Russian gangster-wannabes like Vulk, who's taken a shine to Irina and thinks kidnapping is a wooing strategy. And so Andriy - who really doesn't fancy Irina, honest - must set off in search of that girl he's not in love with. 'Immensely appealing. All but sings with zest for life...could hardly be more engaging, shrewd and winningly perceptive' Sunday Times 'Extremely funny, closely observed insights, scenes of farce, tragedy and horror' The Times Literary Supplement 'Hilarious and horrifying, Two Caravans is funny, clever and well observed' Guardian Bestselling author Marina Lewkyca has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her hilarious first novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian in 2005, which was the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005, winner of the Saga Award for Wit 2005, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 and longlisted for the Booker prize 2005. Her other humorous novels We Are All Made of Glue and Various Pets Alive and Dead are also available from Penguin. Two Caravans is published as Strawberry Fields in the USA and Canada.

THE AWARD-WINNING, MILLION-COPY BESTSELLERA hilarious, lively, moving and compassionate debut about one Ukrainian-British family's tumultuous relationship and the history they never knew. 'Delightful, funny, touching' Spectator*****"As Romeo and Juliet found to their cost, marriage is never just about two people falling in love, it is about families." Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their widowed, tractor-obsessed Ukrainian father from the voluptuous, wealth-obsessed Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she outmanoeuvres the sisters at every turn. But their campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of European and Ukrainian history, and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . .***** 'Hugely enjoyable . . . yields a golden harvest of family truths' Daily Telegraph 'Captures the peculiar flavour of Eastern European immigrant life . . . a very rich mixture indeed' Daily Express'It's rare to find a first novel that gets so much right . . . Lewycka is a seriously talented comic writer' Time Out

Meidät kaikki on tehty liimasta jatkaa brittiläisen Marina Lewyckan viisaiden ja humorististen romaanien sarjaa. Georgie Sinclairin aviomies on jättänyt hänet ja heidän poikansa on pahimmassa murkkuiässä. Kun vielä Georgien naapuri, iäkäs juutalainen maahanmuuttaja, rouva Shapiro alkaa tunkea nenänsä Georgien asioihin niin hänen mittansa on täyttyä. Mutta sitten rouva Shapiro joutuu sairaalaan ja määrää Georgien asioidensa hoitajaksi, jolloin Georgie huomaa olevansa keskellä mysteeriä, jonka juuret juontavat sodanaikaiseen Eurooppaan ja Lähi-Idän tapahtumiin.

A farmer's indiscretions force a band of illegal migrant workers from different backgrounds to flee their strawberry fields and embark on a haphazard journey across England in search of better lives, an effort marked by an unlikely love affair. Reprint.

Marina Lewycka kuvaa humoristisella otteella Kentin, "Englannin puutarhan", mansikkaviljelmille saapunutta värikästä kansainvälistä marjanpoimijajoukkoa. Poimijat ovat tulleet maailman eri kolkilta leveämmän leivän toivossa, pakoon oman kotimaansa köyhyyttä ja sosiaalisia ongelmia. Englanti kangastelee heidän toiveissaan kultamaana, jossa voi kesän kuluessa ansaita tarpeeksi selviytyäkseen kotimaan ankeista oloista aina seuraavaan kesään asti. Kertomus saa vähän kerrassaan traagisempia sävyjä, kun kirjailija kertoo nykyajan siirtotyöläisten kohtalosta ja kohtelusta modernin hyvinvointivaltion sokkeloissa. Lewyckan kotimaastaan ja samalla koko uudesta uljaasta unioni-Euroopasta luomaa kriittistä kuvaa pehmentää hänen lämmin huumorinsa ja myötätuntonsa välillä kovia kokevia henkilöhahmojaan ja näiden kommelluksia kohtaan. Muu maa mansikka? on Marina Lewyckan (s. 1946) toinen romaani. Esikoinen, Traktorien lyhyt historia Ukrainaksi (Sammakko 2006) on ollut myynti- ja arvostelumenestys ympäri Eurooppaa.

Nadezjda (Nadja) og hendes storesøster Vera er ikke på talefod, men da deres 84-årige far falder for en 36-årig ukrainsk blondine med gevaldige bryster og insisterer på at gifte sig, må de samarbejde for at afværge katastrofen

Putting aside a lifetime of rivalry when they learn that their recently widowed father is planning to remarry a gold-digging woman, sisters Vera and Nadezhda find themselves outmaneuvered by their father's scheming fiance, a situation that is compromised by a hurricane, family secrets, and their father's obsession with tractor history. Reprint.