Marcus and Doro were part of a commune from the late 1960s until the early 1990s. As old age looms, they reassess their life of lentils, free love, spliffs, radical politics and cooking rotas. They believe their three children have adopted their values, challenging the individualistic and materialistic norm of modern living, but in fact things are quite different: primary school teacher Clara craves order and clean bathrooms, son Serge is pretending to his parents that he is still doing a Maths PhD at Cambridge, while in fact he's in the City making obscene sums of money; and third child Oolie Anna, who has Downs Syndrome, is desperate to escape home and live on her own. Set in Doncaster and London, this is a very funny commentary on modern values.

I confess I didn't like Lewycka's hugely successful first book, 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian'. I thought it dark and sad. So, for me, this  was quite different. Not quite laugh-out-loud, but I felt I was smiling all the way through. I wanted to put the rest of life on hold so that I could keep reading - and I didn't want it to end. The characters are beautifully drawn and you are rooting for each one of them. It's witty but also displays irony and farce in equal measure. It's a fantastic book!