In his dystopian drama, Howard Jacobson has created a thought-provoking love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying

Two people fall in love, not yet knowing where they have come from or where they are going. Kevern doesn’t know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a word starting with a J. It wasn’t then, and isn’t now, the time or place to be asking questions. Ailinn too has grown up in the dark about who she was or where she came from. On their first date Kevern kisses the bruises under her eyes. He doesn’t ask who hurt her. Brutality has grown commonplace. They aren’t sure if they have fallen in love of their own accord, or whether they’ve been pushed into each other’s arms. But who would have pushed them, and why?

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2014
Published by
Jonathan Cape
Publication date

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Howard Jacobson

Howard Jacobson

About the Author

Howard Jacobson has written 16 novels and five works of non-fiction
More about Howard Jacobson

Other nominated books by Howard Jacobson

The Finkler Question
Prize winner
Kalooki Nights
Who's Sorry Now?