A funny, startling but ultimately hopeful novel of twenty-first century city lives. On the high ground above the great city, Roy and Helen live in brittle affluence inside a weary marriage. Of their four children, three have long vanished into the sprawling, sluttish metropolis beneath: Marcus the dotcom entrepreneur, Shona the shocking Britart princess, and Danny – the one nobody will talk about. But the last child Zack itches to know more about his lost brother; and gets his chance when the smooth surfaces of family life are abruptly blown apart. Roy is sacked on his fiftieth birthday, stages an unconventional protest in the office doorway and rapidly finds himself a homeless exile in the city’s darkest streets. It is Zack’s chance to escape down the hill in turn, whiile his mother Helen makes a bizarre decision of her own.
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Reviews
A whirlwind of contemporary social issues . . . an extreme and entertaining picture of modern urban life. How Libby Purves manages to weave all this into a comedy, I don't know. But she does.
An author who tackles difficult contemporary issues with insight and compassion. Expect the unexpected in PASSING GO, a tale for our times.
Libby Purves has excelled herself with this portrait of a dysfunctional clan, which is as full of sharp observations, insight and humour as her readers will have come to expect
Purves ties up this tale with her usual skill . . . a modern fable with an old-fashioned message of tolerance and humanity at its core.
Urban life depicted in a most revealing way
Humorous and touching
An astute tale of modern middle-class family breakdown and role reversals. An urban sitcom turned upside-down
sharply observed, thought-provoking, witty - and ultimately optimistic and, indeed, heart-warming