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Almost English

Almost English

Written by Charlotte Mendelson

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2013
Published by Picador

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In Charlotte Mendelson’s comic tale, a Hungarian teen swaps a flat full of female relatives for the dubious delights of an English boarding school

In a tiny flat in West London, 16-year-old Marina lives with her emotionally delicate mother, Laura, and three ancient Hungarian relatives. Imprisoned by her family’s crushing expectations and their fierce un-English pride, by their strange traditions and stranger foods, she knows she must escape. But the place she runs to makes her feel even more of an outsider.
Charlotte Mendelson

Charlotte Mendelson

Charlotte Mendelson’s background is west London mixed with Jewish mittel Europe but she describes her accent, courtesy of growing up in Oxford, as sounding ‘like a pre-pubescent Etonian’
More about Charlotte Mendelson