Forever Home: THIS AUTUMN'S MUST-READ NOVEL FROM GRAHAM NORTON

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And I could not but marvel at and admire Carol's mother Moira— an 80-year-old powerhouse of a woman. WENDY, their eldest, a cause for concern, soothes herself with drink after being widowed young, while VIOLET, lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mother, is disturbed by the reappearance of a son placed for adoption fifteen years earlier. This one actually probably most resembles Holding (which I would consider his weakest) in the sense that it is effectively a dark comedy, a caper, veering into farce at times. So, Carol, must vacate the house and move in with her parents Moira, her judgmental mother and Dave, her quiet seemingly spacy father who only seems to do as he is told.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. In his tense and darkly comic new novel Norton casts a light on the relationship between mothers and daughters, and truth and self-preservation with unnerving effect. To her dismay, she discovers that the Barry siblings have put the house up for sale, despite it being their father’s wish for the house never to be sold. This sometimes dark, sometimes humorous story, provides a great build-up through detailed backstories in the first-half, that results in a suspenseful, thrilling, and a bit of a wacky second-half.She loves Declan, and the double blow of losing him to his illness and losing her home as well, is devastating.

Sally is a fragile girl, deeply affected by her mother having left the family home, mysteriously, when she was young. Another excellent read from Graham Norton who has the happy knack of being able to create totally real characters whilst simultaneously making a pretty unreal, implausible situation seem so normal it’s almost mundane. Bolting that on to an increasingly slapstick crime caper feels odd, though, particularly when the reason for the big secret is not something you’d readily make light of. Since Declan seems to be getting worse, he is unable to help him with this problem, so Moira comes up with a plan which Carol reluctantly must agree with. Despite this they are old-fashioned and set in their ways and provide hilarious comic relief to the tragic events occurring in their daughter’s life.When events (set in motion by Declan's children) put Declan into a care facility, they heartlessly throw Carol out of the house and put it up for sale. Norton excels at painting everyone in their true colours, even if at times their introspection and feelings towards others was less than charitable. The new dark comedy from the Sunday Times bestselling author Graham Norton Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland, happy enough with the life she has. Their love blossomed after she began giving home tutoring to his daughter Sally, who was struggling at school.

With all the dramas that Carol has to go through (from small and tedious to horrific and chilling, or rather, freezing), with all the emotional bumps and bruises she suffers as she uncovers more and more of the dark and tragic past of her partner's family, this story is ultimately nothing but pure kindness and compassion, with a fair share of good-natured irony sprinkled here and there because come on, it's Graham Norton! I devoured this novel within two days, it was an absolute joy to read and I highly recommend it to all. This twisting yet darkly funny story explores family dynamics and the power of rumours and unearthed secrets.

Still, Forever Home is effortlessly readable – mainly thanks to its reliance on explanatory speech rather than descriptive prose – possessed of a super twist and full of rounded characters to keep close to your heart. I predict late success with the paperback, it has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and is a superb summer read. Declan gets Alzheimer's and his children use all of their power to do what they want with their dad and his house.

Carol is devastated as she knows for a fact Declan never wanted to sell the house, but shockingly she finds Killan is the executor of the estate and has made this decision. There are secrets, there is a sense of shame and a desire to appear normal, even when things clearly aren’t, and in this way the author makes a nod, though not a heavy one, to elements of Ireland’s past that it is still coming to terms with.This sets the locals gossiping until Declan becomes too ill to live at home, and is moved into a care home. A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging—and sparks a flurry of speculation. Both have memories of hurt feelings and now that they have their own lives, they no longer have time or energy for the woman who lived with their father in the family home for 12 years. I have said it before, with every review I’ve written on one of his novels, but Graham Norton really is in a class of his own. Her soulmate and partner, Declan Barry, is no longer by her side, and she is being evicted from the home they shared by his grown up children.