{"product_id":"9781466865136","title":"Meeting the English: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e \"Exceptional . . . Clanchy has a wincingly accurate eye for social comedy, a vivid descriptive sense, and profound understanding of her characters. This is a delectable read.\" --Daily Mail (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn response to an advertisement, Struan Robertson, orphan, genius, and just seventeen, leaves his dour native town in Scotland, and arrives at a creaky mansion in London in the freakishly hot summer of 1989. His job, he finds, is to care for playwright and one-time literary star Phillip Prys, dumbfounded and paralyzed by a massive stroke, because, though Phillip's two teenage children, two wives, and a literary agent all rattle 'round his large house, they are each too busy with their peculiar obsessions to do it themselves. As the city bakes, Struan finds himself tangled in a midsummer's dream of mistaken identity, giddying property prices, wild swimming, and overwhelming passions. For everyone, it is to be a life-changing summer. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKate Clanchy's \u003ci\u003eMeeting the English\u003c\/i\u003e is a bright book about dark subjects--a tale about kindness and its limits, told with love.  It is a coming of age story for anyone who has ever felt themselves to be an outsider; a love story for the awkward; and a comedy for anyone who has ever lived in a family. Written by an acclaimed writer of poetry, non-fiction, and short stories, this glorious debut novel is spiked with witty dialogue and jostling with gleeful, zesty characters.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47141304860912,"sku":"9781466865136","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781466865136_p0.jpg?v=1769891926","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781466865136","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}