Man and Boy

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tony parsons

man and boy "I cried five times and laughed out loud four" James Brown, Observer

a novel

"I sobbed my way shamelessly through this book."

-Woman's Journal "As ever, [Tony Parsons] is in impressively depthcharging, straight-talking form. A broadsheet mind with a tabloid tongue, he remains one of the few male writers prepared to look beyond his own navel in search of answers."

-GQ "One of the finest books published this year. .. Hilarious and tear-jerking in turns."

-Express "Your book has touched me, moved me in a way that hundreds of other books haven't even come close to. It is amazing." -A reader, Eve B. "Parsons has written a sharp, witty and wise book straight from his heart. His characters are all nittygritty, bounce-off-the-page, real people, his dialogue is brilliant."

-Daily Mail "I found Man and Boy almost unbearably moving; indeed, 1 had to stop reading it in public places." -A reader, Jeffrey J. "Packs an enormous emotional wallop."

-Time Out

"I don't write many letters. In fact, I don't write letters. Your book made me ... .! read a great deal, but your words were important to me." -A reader, Stephen E "A finely constructed novel that says more about human relationships than a library of psychology manuals, hitting the funny bone and the emotional jugular at one and the same time." -Irish Times "Books don't usually make me cry, but I sobbed." -A reader, Christine M. "Wistful, touching and funny, it looks back at the glory days of the family without losing hope for the future. In the end, it is a deeply touching book: a love letter to a son from his father, and to a father from his son. " -Mail on Sunday "A grown-up novel that is simultaneously a heartrending gripping read and suffused with an irresistible reality." -Glasgow Herald "A touching novel.. .full of quiet tenderness, and written from the heart." -Independent

"I cried five times and laughed out loud four." -James Brown, Observer "I had never cried so much as I did reading your book." -A reader, Valentina C. "I found it deeply moving and truthful." -A reader, Tim B. "Unashamedly touching ... funny and well-written." -Telegraph magazine "Superb. Man and Boy is as witty and sharp as you would expect from Parsons but it is not at all bitterrather profoundly moving. It will strike chords with many readers." -Yorkshire Post

"It made me laugh and cry and sit up half the night to finish it." -A reader, S.W.M. "Entertaining. Hugely so. Parsons has the skill to grip you by the collar and drag you into the heart of the story." -Manchester Evening News "Parsons is a brisk and punchy writer, moving the story on in a series of jaunty episodes and comic vignettes." -Times Literary Supplement

"As tautly plotted as a thriller and its rich cast of characters defy stereotype ... Like Kern or Gershwin, he touches the universal via the specific and we weep."

-Irish TImes "Anyone expecting Parsons' trademark razor-sharp mockney one-liners will find something altogether more subtle. It might sound a bit Nick Hornby but I'd liken it to Kramer vs. Kramer. A surprising tear-jerker."

-Mirror "What distinguishes Parsons' effort from a shelfful of 'male identity' outings is his ability to take the traditional framework of the genre ... and work within it to produce a series of wholly unexpected twists and eddies .. .If this is the direction in which British chaps' fiction is heading, then no one who cares about contemporary writing can seriously complain."

-Literary Review

tony parsons

man and boy

tony parsons

man and boy

SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARKAN IMPRINT OF SoURCEBOOKS, INC.· NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS

Published by Sourcebooks, Inc. P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410 (630) 961-3900 FAX: (630) 961-2168 First published in Great Britain by HatperCollinsPublisheTs 1999 Copyright © 1999, 2001 by Tony Parsons Jacket photography by Joe Partridge ISBN 1-57071-725-7 'The Way You Look Tonight' Words and Music by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields © Copyright 1936 Universal-PolyGram International Publishing, Inc., a division of Universal Studios, Inc. (ASCAP) Copyright Renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagi, nation. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events

or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any fonn or by any electronic or mechanical means including infonnation storage and retrieval systems--except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews-with. out permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Parsons, Tony.

Man and boy I by Tony Parsons. p.em.

ISBN 1-57071-725-7 (alk. paper) 1. Motherless families--Fiction. 2. Fathers and sons--Fiction. 3. Boys--Fiction. l. Title. PS3566.A77155 M36 2001 813'.54---