Product Description

This work tells a hilarious and bitter-sweet tale of baby-blues and fruitless men. The original Marian Keyes novel is back! At twenty-nine, fun-loving, good-natured Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to her first baby. James visits her in the recovery room to inform her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a beautiful newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a body that she can hardly bear to look at in the mirror. So, in the absence of any better offers, Claire decides to go home to her family in Dublin. To her gorgeous man-eating sister Helen, her soap-watching mother, her bewildered father. And there, sheltered by the love of an (albeit quirky) family, she gets better - a lot better. In fact, so much better that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise. "A grand first novel by Irish writer Keyes is a hilarious treatise on love's roller coaster. A candid, irresistibly funny debut and perfect summertime read." - "Kirkus Reviews". "Bitter-sweet comedy." - "Express". "Marian Keyes has a talent for writing about ordinary things happening to ordinary people. But in "Watermelon", the skill with which she weaves this tangled web is extraordinary." - "Star". "Reading a new novel by Marian Keyes is like sitting at the kitchen table with your nicest, most confiding friend" - "Daily Mail".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3460 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Marian Keyes begins Watermelon with a rather inauspicious romantic opening when the heroine's husband leaves her for Denise from the flat downstairs the day their first child is born. Claire, the deserted wife and mother, returns to her family in Dublin and, after going through the required stages of "Loss, Loneliness, Hopelessness and Humiliation", begins to feel much better--so much better that when James tries to win his way back into her affections, he gets more than he bargained for.

The author's style is too blunt and her setting too suburban (with its all-too-human heroine struggling to keep her sanity, tend to her new-born baby, fight it out with siblings and begin to love again) to be a traditional romance, but there is enough chemistry and mystery to keep you guessing in the lip-smacking Watermelon--a dish that may not fill you up but will certainly give you a taster of Marian Keyes' work, of which there is much to sample, including Lucy Sullivan is getting Married, Rachel's Holiday and Last Chance Saloon. --Nicola Perry

Synopsis
This work tells a hilarious and bitter-sweet tale of baby-blues and fruitless men. The original Marian Keyes novel is back! At twenty-nine, fun-loving, good-natured Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to her first baby. James visits her in the recovery room to inform her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a beautiful newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a body that she can hardly bear to look at in the mirror. So, in the absence of any better offers, Claire decides to go home to her family in Dublin. To her gorgeous man-eating sister Helen, her soap-watching mother, her bewildered father. And there, sheltered by the love of an (albeit quirky) family, she gets better - a lot better. In fact, so much better that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise. "A grand first novel by Irish writer Keyes is a hilarious treatise on love's roller coaster. A candid, irresistibly funny debut and perfect summertime read." - "Kirkus Reviews". "Bitter-sweet comedy." - "Express". "Marian Keyes has a talent for writing about ordinary things happening to ordinary people.

But in "Watermelon", the skill with which she weaves this tangled web is extraordinary." - "Star". "Reading a new novel by Marian Keyes is like sitting at the kitchen table with your nicest, most confiding friend" - "Daily Mail".

From the Publisher
An hilarious and bitter-sweet tale of baby-blues and fruitless men. The original Marian Keyes novel is back!

Customer Reviews

wow
A story of a woman's triumph through grief. As Claire is landed with a new born baby and a deserted husband, she's not quite sure what to do with herself. It seem's the only option is to go home to her quirky family. After she passes a few weeks of grief for her soon to be ex - husband, James, she meets her 18 year old sister's friend, Adam. He helps her through the worst time of her life and she finally comes to the decision that she doesn't need James anymore - that is until, he shows up. This book manages to capture the devestating and refreshing qualities of a broken marriage and how what may seem the worst thing in your life can also be the best.

Fabulous & So Real!
Oh what a great book! This was my first Marian Keyes read and since I have read a further 2 and now on my fourth!
An excellent, funny read. It really does make you laugh out loud, and I guarantee most parts of the book you will really be able to relate to!
It's not one of those books where it takes a few chapters before it gets going as it really starts from chapter 1.
This is the first book about the Walsh family, I highly recommend you go on to read Rachels Holiday, Angels & Anybody Out There after this one.

Marian Keyes starts as she means to go on!
Marian Keyes first novel and the first book to follow the Walsh sisters starting with the oldest Claire.Marian Keyes starts as she means to go on!