Vinegar Girl

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What to expect

‘You can’t get around Kate Battista as easily as all that’

Kate Battista is feeling stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but the adults don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.

Dr Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr…

When Dr Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to win her round?

Anne Tyler’s retelling of The Taming of the Shrew asks whether a thoroughly modern, independent woman like Kate would ever sacrifice herself for a man. The answer is as individual, off-beat and funny as Kate herself.

'I loved Kate and Pyotr and the way they discover the oversized, tender, irreverent relationship that fits them... It is joyful' Rachel Joyce

‘Read her books and she can actually change your view, change how you see the world’ Judy Finigan, Mail on Sunday

‘Tyler writes with an apparent effortlessness which conceals great art’ Helen Dunmore, Stylist

‘Tyler’s sentences are wholly hers, instantly recognisable and impossible to duplicate’ Hanya Yanigihara, Observer

‘A new novel from Tyler is always a treat’ Daily Mail

Critics Review

  • It’s knockabout comedy at its best, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny and, indeed, may be her funniest book to date

    Daily Mail
  • The worst wedding in history … vintage Anne Tyler

    The Times
  • It’s every subtle shade of funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-affirming

    Grazia
  • Funny, thought-provoking, essential

    The Sunday Telegraph (Stella)
  • Delightful, ingenious and convincing… Anyone who values good writing and the intelligent observation and depiction of how people feel, think and speak will enjoy it too

    Scotsman

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