Rooster

Natashas life is a perfectly calibrated illusion, motivated by a feverish desperation to hide her dysfunctional childhood. No one who knows her can deny this strategy is working.

Social mobility: tick.

Happy daughter: tick.

Keeping recovering addict mother at bay: tick.

Scheduling sex to keep marriage alive: tick.

When her husband leaves her for their slovenly, easy-going dog walker, Natashas carefully curated world implodes, and she is plunged into a spiral of chaos and obsession as her perfect life unravels.

But an unlikely friendship with a rooster named Freddie Mercury and his owner Barry sets Natasha on the slow journey back home, to her family, and to herself.

Rooster is a poignant, laugh-out-loud story of marriage, perfectionism, middle life, and how the ghosts of childhood come back to haunt us even when were sure weve left them behind.

Vivid, personal and filled with wisdom, sass and life lessons . . .this is a beautiful bookAlan Cumming

Wise, hilarious and tender. When Rooster ended I even missed the rooster.Esther Freud

A rare and hugely enjoyable combination of laugh out loud hilarity and true, life-piercing pathos, containing joy, wisdom and liberation for every woman I know.Sara Collins, bestselling author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton