Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years

The final chapter in the beloved chronicles of an angsty Brit begun in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ is a tour de force by a comic genius (Daily Mail). Am I turning into one of those middle-aged men who think the country has gone to the dogs and that there has been no decent music since Abba? Hard to believe! Adrian Mole is pushing forty, a beleaguered bookseller looking back through the wistful eyes of an unrecognized intellectual and, admittedly, pretty much of an Everyman. But hes also looking forward, despite a few things: His five-year-old daughter is showing alarming Stalinist traits; his son is fighting the Taliban and hes worried sick; his unfaithful wife is keeping a diary of her own and its all rather heartbreaking; frequent urination has made him fear trouble down there; and his mother is penning a misery memoir that is one gross slog of a lie (born an aristocrat in a Norfolk potato field, indeed!). Then one day he receives a phone call out of the blue from the great and only love his life: Pandora Braithwaite. Do you think of me? she asks. Only ever since he was 13¾ . . . Adrian Moles epic and hilarious chronicle of angst over a quarter century has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, and been adapted for television and staged as a musicaltruly a phenomenon (The Washington Post). This final volume is like rediscovering an old school friend on Facebook (Time Out), and if [it] isnt the best book published this year, Ill eat my bookshelf (Daily Mail).