Product Description

Alone in her native St Petersburg, Maria Glover sends an urgent summons to London and New York. Her son and daughter arrive too late to see her, but the end of their mother’s life marks the beginning of their own story: one of secrets, strangers, and the ultimate retelling of everything they thought they knew.

‘Docx knows that what we want most from a novel are stories into which we can sink our teeth and our hearts. His ability to evoke the atmosphere of a city is almost Dickensian’ Guardian

‘Full of insight: on the state of Russia, Britain and the US; and on the nature of music, addiction, love and sex. Funny and involving and the characters are often priceless’ Metro

‘I was amazed at the detail of Docx’s St Petersburg, with all its beauty and cruelty, similar to the style of Dostoevsky’ Financial Times

‘Unforgettable. Not since What a Carve Up! has there been such an absorbing indictment of the family’ Independent on Sunday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71340 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Independent on Sunday
'Docx switches between settings and time-frames with the serene, godlike power of a Victorian novelist...'

Sunday Herald's Cultural Life
'One can say this is a book with big ideas at its heart.'

Irish Times
'Docx's novel brings us through this murky territory with a slow, dark intensity.'

Customer Reviews

self help
If this is only Docx's second novel, he'll be winning awards in no time.

This is an engrossing novel about families which escapes the banality that often permeates such novels. The plot follows Gabriel and Isabella Glover, thirty two year-old twins, as they come to terms with their mother's death in Russia. Gabriel is based in London while Isabella lives in New York, and the sudden loss causes both to reassess their lives and relationships.

Meanwhile, a talented Russian pianist has links to the Glovers. His life is a million miles from theirs. Docx thrillingly evokes the sleazy underbelly of the poverty-stricken in Russia, and the horrors of drug dependency, withdrawal and eking out a living in a criminal world are fascinatingly depicted.

There are so many breathtakingly potent sections in this novel. Fear, anger, loyalty, hatred and love are all seared into the text, and some sections are white-knuckle inducing. Docx captures the conflicting emotions that family evokes. And the characters are rounded and believable, they have faults like real people, and their dialogue sparkles.

The Booker should have gone to this or to Darkmans.

Another brilliant novel by Edward Docx
Another brilliantly written and gripping novel from Edward Docx. Darker than the Calligrapher, dealing with family & secrets spread across London, St Petersburg, Paris and New York. There's a much broader cast of characters in this one - from the brooding suppressed violence of the silent Arkady, a Russian pianist; to the intelligent, cruel, indolence of bisexual Nicholas, a gracefully aged Dorian Grey, painting badly in Paris. Hard to choose a favourite, really.

The chapter from which the book takes its title is hilarious. Gabriel, the sort-of hero, works on a magazine called Self Help (providing advice to the emotionally desperate) and all his staff are useless. He tries to keep his temper while reducing the camp, page designer to tears over his spread of Princess Diana for that month's front cover, themed "Toxic Parents". Docx is definitely one of the funniest writers I've ever read...

But as well as the humour there are sensitive, affecting, indeed deeply moving scenes - the loss of a mother, the sympathy of loved ones, Isabella breaking up with her boyfriend, brother and sister arguing, childhood memories of parental anger. And as with The Calligrapher, the location descriptions, the scene setting of time and place, are spell-binding.

All in all: definitely worth it. I am a fan. Just wish he would write more!

Brilliant novel
The death of Gabriel and Isabella's mother throws her two children into emotional turmoil and makes them confront not only the ghosts of their past but also their problems in the present. The past exerts a profound effect on their current lives albeit hidden under a cloak of surface normality.

The chapters moves from scene to scene, character to character, country to country but the thread of the story is never lost. It is a consistent page turner, moving from the self indulgence of the twin's father, the romantic Marxism of their mother to the harsh reality of life in present day St Petersburg for Arkady, the talented Russian pianist raised in institutions since birth. The novel also focuses on Gabriel's intense dislike of his father to whom he bears more of a resemblance than he would like to think. This aversion is also shared by Gabriel's twin sister Isabella albeit to a somewhat lesser degree.

Self Help is a tale of a dysfunctional family, existential crises and a dream of musical success. It is an engaging and page turning tale set against the background of the cities of St Petersburg, Paris, London and New York. It's a search for a sense of self and the characters' endeavours to turn their backs on life's typical path.