How to Leave the House

The funniest, wildest and most original debut novel of 2024 `Gobby, barbed and garrulous` Eley Williams `Truly original` Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies `Genuinely hilarious` Keiran Goddard, author of Hourglass It`s Natwest`s last day before he leaves for university, and there`s only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house - which still hasn`t arrived. He won`t leave town without it. Any alternative is too distressing to consider ... This is the story of twenty-four hours in the life of NATWEST, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. And yet it`s also the story of a MIDDLE-AGED DENTIST who dreams of being a respected artist - but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it`s the story of a TORTURED IMAM involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; and an OCTOGENARIAN mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a TROUBLED TEENAGER whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It`s the story of Natwest`s obnoxious EX-BOYFRIEND, and his CLASS-TRAITOR MOTHER and her CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND, and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest`s past. Alternating between Natwest`s idiosyncratic inner world and the perspectives of the other characters - and dazzling in its energy, imagination and originality - this is an outrageously funny and tenderly moving story about being connected to everyone and everything at all times; about love, friendship, and the lies we tell ourselves; about unhappy endings, happy endings - and whether anything really is as simple as one or the other.