And God Created the Au Pair
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Picture the perfect family…
Now forget it & read this.
An achingly funny novel on modern motherhood and married life, as told through the e-mail correspondence of two sisters.
When your family snapshots resemble NSPCC ads and it takes a quick-witted au pair to prevent your guests from burning alive, you have well and truly arrived in motherhood…
Charlotte and Nell are sisters who live thousands of miles apart, each coping, or rather not coping, with the incalculable demands of motherhood. The daily battle to avert domestic disaster and keep up with the Dickenson-Jones's is abated only by their hilariously candid e-mail exchange.
They address some crucial questions, such as: if your son hasn't noticed that you've given Benny the hamster away, it is safe to assume he's forgotten? What is the unassailable law of nature that guarantees a cool, elegant paint, chosen with a loving homemaker's care, will dry to the colour of greying ham? And will a glass of chardonnay make it all better?
Charlotte and Nell are separated by continents but united in tales of over-busy lives and family mishaps – how to cope with children demanding their attention 24/7, husbands who are oblivious to the madness their world has become, as well as coming to terms with the fact that they are no longer the youthful free spirits they once were.
And God Created the Au Pair is perhaps what Bridget Jones might write if she got married, had children and began to wonder whether being single had its advantages after all…
Reviews
‘An unputdownable book that, extraordinarily, made me yearn for a dozen more children, a menagerie of household pets and a perpetual case of builders. Essential comfort reading for any mother. Please can we have a sequel, soon’ Frances Osborne, author of Lilla’s Feast and mother of two
About the author
‘Desp@tches from the Home Front’ is a much-loved weekly column in The Times, detailing trials and tribulations of family life on both sides of the Atlantic.
Both authors live in London and have four children each. Bénédicte Newland lived in Toronto, Canada for five years and her husband was deputy editor of The National Post.
Customer Reviews
At least 1 chuckle, giggle, or guffaw for every penny it costs
I made a pretty lucky find at the sale table at Chapters a few years ago. This book has ripply spots on some pages where my tears of laughter dripped. I loved it so much that when I saw several more copies at another Chapters, marked down to an unbelievable $2, I bought them all and gave them away to people I thought might enjoy it as much as I did. The other day, looking for inspiration, it struck me that I should read this book again and see if it still moved me the same way.
One of the constants in my life is waiting for children to be done activities, and some of that waiting is done in the car in a parking lot with a coffee and a book or the phone; the perfect opportunity to reread this old friend.
Let's just say if you're going to read in your car and snort with laughter while pedestrians wander past, it might be best to keep the windows up.
Do yourself a favour and buy this book.