How Hard It Could Be

Description: Kate Reddy is back! This is the follow-up to the international bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It, the novel that defined modern life for women everywhere. This time she's juggling teenagers, aging parents and getting back into the workplace, and every page will have you laughing and thinking: It's not just me. Kate Reddy is counting down the days until she is fifty, but not in a good way. Fifty, in Kate's mind, equals invisibility. And with hormones that have her in shackles, teenage children who need her there but won't talk to her and ailing parents who aren't coping, Kate is in the middle of a sandwich that she isn't even allowed to eat because of the calories. She's back at work after a big break at home, because somebody has to bring home the bacon now that her husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness. But just as Kate is finding a few tricks to get by in her new workplace, her old client and flame Jack reappears - complicated doesn't even begin to cover it. This is a coming of age story for turning fifty. It's about so much more than a balancing act; it's about finding out who you are and what you need to feel alive when you've got used to being your own last priority. And every page will leave you feeling that there's a bit of Kate Reddy in all of us. As funny as Helen Fielding and Caitlin Moran, this is straight-up brilliant fiction about how to have it all and not end up losing yourself on the way.

Review: `Funny, heart-breaking, wise and delightful' SOPHIE HANNAH Praise for I Don't Know How She Does It: `I can't think of a woman who wouldn't want this book' INDIA KNIGHT `I love Kate Reddy...her tale made me cry twice, and laugh often' Independent on Sunday `The kind of book you fall in love with - a grown-up novel that is hilarious, heartbreaking and brimming with the bittersweet tang of all our lives' TONY PARSONS `Refreshingly engaging' Vogue `Funny, fast and full of nail-on-the-head observations' Daily Telegraph `A book that made me howl with laughter' The Times `Searing comedy' New Statesman `Painfully funny' Heat `Pearson never hides her intelligence or apologises for her seriousness of purpose' The Times `A funny, heartbreaking mirror of the daily lives of mothers' Telegraph Magazine `Pearson writes with gratifying elegance and endearing self-mockery' New York Times


Author Biography: Allison Pearson was born in South Wales. She is a columnist and feature writer for the Daily Telegraph. Allison's first novel, I Don't Know How She Does It, was an international bestseller; translated into 32 languages it was made into a movie of the same name. Oprah Winfrey called the book `A Bible for the working mother'. Allison lives in Cambridge with her family and two poodles. You can find her on Twitter @allisonpearson