HarperCollins, London, 1999

This novel was elected “Book of the Year” by the British Book Award, and rightly so. Tony Parsons is a radio and TV journalist and combines this typically English ease of writing with a profound, almost philosophical look at human relationships. Harry Silver, the “man” has to care for his 4-year-old “son” Pat, because his wife has left him after he had had a one-night-stand with a girl at work.
Although this plot sounds very much like the male equivalent to modern women´s literature, it´s not as simplistic as that. Parsons really cares for all his characters and so the reader gets involved and cares, too. The only thing in this book, I can´t quite believe, is that Pat watches the Star Wars trilogy again and again. A four year old?
We follow Harry, on the other hand, full of compassion, as he tries to detach himself from his wife and start a life of his own together with his little son. First Harry´s parents help him, but then his father dies, another loss he has to come to terms with.
 Of course, the story takes a romantic turn with a new love waiting round the corner and a happy ending, but there is a clear understanding between reader and author, that this is not the end, really.