Serious Sweet : Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

A good man in a bad world, Jon Sigurdsson is 59 and divorced- a senior civil servant in Westminster who hates many of his colleagues and loathes his work for a government engaged in unmentionable acts. A man of conscience.

Meg Williams is 'a bankrupt accountant - two words you don't want in the same sentence, or anywhere near your CV'. She's 45 and shakily sober, living on Telegraph Hill, where she can see London unfurl below her. Somewhere out there is safety.

Somewhere out there is Jon, pinballing around the city with a mobile phone and a letter-writing habit he can't break. He's a man on the brink, leaking government secrets and affection as he runs for his life.

Set in 2014, this is a novel of our times. Poignant, deeply funny, and beautifully written, Serious Sweet is about two decent, damaged people trying to make moral choices in an immoral world- ready to sacrifice what's left of themselves for honesty, and for a chance at tenderness. As Jon and Meg navigate the sweet and serious heart of London - passing through 24 hours that will change them both for ever - they tell a very unusual, unbearably moving love story.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Over the course of one very long day (eventually spilling over into the next), two people try repeatedly to connect with each other while outside forces conspire to keep them apart. Fifty-nine-year-old British civil servant Jon Sigurdsson, who is divorced, disillusioned with work, and dissatisfied with life, is looking for some meaningful human connection when he concocts an eccentric scheme of writing chaste letters of affection to female strangers. Although he doesn't ask for or expect it, one woman replies: recovering alcoholic and failed accountant Meg Williams, now working part-time at an animal shelter. In the way of their eventual meeting are a series of crises in Jon's day involving a difficult boss, a troublesome journalist, and his distressed daughter, who has just broken up with her boyfriend. Their funny, self-effacing monologs punctuate the drama of Jon's innumerable delays and Meg's increasing agitation. VERDICT This gorgeously written story of an agonizing day in the life of two flawed but endearing individuals made the Man Booker's long list. This love story is a winner.-Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Prolific Scottish novelist Kennedy (Day) has always excelled at depicting the kinship of misfits, and her latest initially fits that bill in its tale of two hard-luck Londoners finding love over the course of a single hectic day. Readers first meet divorced civil servant Jon Sigurdsson as he tries in vain to revive a dying bird, and the rest of his life is similarly fruitless; he's working on behalf of corrupt politicians who have gradually worn him-and his conscience-down to a nub. Jon's only release is corresponding under the name Corwynn August with anonymous young women. One of these pen pals happens to be Meg Williams, 45 and doing accounts for a dog kennel after her career as an accountant left her bankrupt. Kennedy follows Jon and Meg independently through the nightmare of their daily routines-Meg trying to stay a step ahead of her alcoholism while sustaining herself on Mr. August's letters, Jon beset by ministers, journalists, and his emotional young daughter, Becky-until these two strangers meet at last and try to salvage what remains under their damaged exteriors. Unfortunately, nearly every aspect of the novel is drawn out for far too long, up until the inevitable meet-cute that is the story's sole propulsion. Kennedy punctuates each chapter with idyllic scenes of public transit and strangers drifting through one another's metropolitan lives, and the point is well-taken, but there's too little payoff for this otherwise uneventful and diffuse kitchen-sink romance. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

When we first meet the two main characters in Kennedy's latest novel, they are both dealing poorly with their circumstances. Recently divorced civil servant Jon Sigurdsson ends up in tears trying to free a baby bird, and bankrupt accountant Meg Williams panics over buying cake for someone at the office. Their emotionally fraught lives have left them lonely and depressed, which leads Jon to place an ad offering his services as a letter writer to single women, and Meg to take him up on this offer. The book takes place over the course of 24 hours, which adds immediacy but proves problematic in that the only way Kennedy can flesh out backstories is by having characters ruminating on their past or recalling conversations. The result is that more than half the novel is made up of the characters' inner thoughts; this approach certainly brings the reader close to both Jon and Meg, but in the end, it becomes repetitive and a bit exhausting. Still, readers looking for character-driven fiction that is honest and injected with humor will be drawn to this intense probing of two lives.--Sexton, Kathy Copyright 2016 Booklist