So Many Ways to Begin

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife Eleanor would be the sparkling girl he once found so irresistible; that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held; that his daughter's arrival could have brought him closer to Eleanor. But a few careless words spoken by his mother's friend have left David restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie.

Reviews

‘Extraordinary’ Daily Mail

‘Subtle, clever and affecting’ Independent on Sunday

‘A homage to ordinary people and ordinary things, to the parts of our lives that often go unspoken … moving and honest’ The Times

‘A book about the search for greater meaning in the strange dance of chance’ Independent

‘McGregor’s meticulous syntax melts into a hot flood of words … An intimate tale with penetrating things to say about the wider history of twentieth-century Britain’ Sunday Times

‘An absorbing and unexpectedly uplifting novel … It will leave you thinking long after you have put the book away on the shelf’ Irish Independent

‘A close reading of ordinary lives … tender and often
beautifully poetic’ Stephanie Merritt, Observer

‘Both compelling and convincing. A deeply rewarding read, serious and often beautiful’ Good Book Guide

‘McGregor is a brilliant prose stylist, and here he excels at
making the provincial and the ordinary seem extraordinary’ Sunday Times

‘This is a wonderful novel; low-key but beautifully paced,
scattered with extraordinarily intense moments’ Independent on Sunday

‘This is an unforgettable novel' Daily Telegraph

About the author

Jon McGregor is the author of four novels and a story collection. He is the winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literature Prize, Betty Trask Prize, and Somerset Maugham Award, and has twice been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham, where he edits The Letters Page, a literary journal in letters. He was born in Bermuda in 1976, grew up in Norfolk, and now lives in Nottingham.

Twitter: @jon_mcgregor
Website: www.jonmcgregor.com