'The first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone'

Kansas in August

Kansas in August

Patrick Gale

A toe-tapping story of life and its wonderful and unexpected complexities.

Hilary is a young, attractive teacher with aspirations to be a tap-dancer. Henry, his elder sister, is a crisp, professional psychologist. The unpredictable and unreliable Rufus, a failed pianist, is their lover – whom neither Hilary nor Henry realise they are sharing. Despite the constant danger of discovery, this unwitting triangle persists, in delicate balance – until, that is, someone new and totally unexpected enters the frame. Having rescued an abandoned baby boy, found soaked and tearful in a subway, Hilary decides, to his own great surprise, to become a surrogate parent.

Reviews of Kansas in August

    • ‘Patrick Gale, on the strength of this modern, excellent and sympathetic novel, seems to be bound for greatness.’ Stephen Fry
    • ‘Patrick Gale is an elegant, witty writer, with an engagingly bizarre imagination.’ Sunday Telegraph
    • ‘Gale’s blend of artifice and realism is not quite like anybody else’s.’ Observer

More from Patrick Gale