Olivia’s Sister

At 21, Olivia Martin has mastered the art of cynicism. Maybe that’s inevitable because of her dysfunctional family – a desperately needy, alcoholic ex-model mother; a rich, ill-tempered father with an imperious new wife; and a spoiled half-sister. Olivia’s modus operandi has been to ignore them all and just drift through life, tough and alone. However, just as she is in danger of falling in love – or at least in lust – for the first time, Olivia’s familial responsibilities come crashing down about her. Her father and his second wife are killed in a car crash, and she is left to inherit both their considerable fortune and guardianship of her four-year old half-sister. Despite Olivia’s view that ‘If I’d wanted to be saddled with a kid at this point in my life, I’d have grown up in Oklahoma,’, she has no choice but to do the right thing and try and raise a child she’s only met on a handful of times. Tony Parsons meets Allison Pearson in this intensely moving debut novel, laced with bitter-sweet humour and with a surprising romantic heart.