No 4 Pickle Street — David Peak

It's tricky being the wife of one man and having almost continuous erotic thoughts of another. One day obtuse Derek may get hold of Kate's diary and realize who he's really married to.
Scribbling at dawn in her garden shed as if it will save her life, Kate relives her frenzied passion for absent J - love amidst hastily abandoned pork chow mein. Love with chocolate buttons, love om the hop...
She suppresses the stuff of nightmares which is her daily reality: Derek's curly haired jogging thighs, his pomposity and caveman moods, his dependence on Karen Carpcnter. Laughter in the teeth of despair is what helps to keep away madness. For Kate's imagination is rich with humour - yet so dangerously intent on reshaping the banal into the sublime a shiver of menace is never far away ...
'He is a natural writer... his writing is vivid, amusing, filled with comic sadness and an awareness of the difficult struggles we all have with our experiences' Malcolm Bradbury '
A hugely enjoyable read, one of this year's most resounding fictional forays.' Blitz
'Astute, amusing and touching.' Time Out 'Hilarious set pieces enliven the pages of this accomplished first novel' Sunday Times