À quarante-cinq ans, Susan Green s’est fabriqué une vie parfaite : elle a un métier qu’elle adore, un joli studio dans lequel elle cultive ses précieux cactus, un arrangement bien particulier avec Richard, qui lui procure sorties culturelles et satisfaction sexuelle. Tout est sous contrôle, sauf son insupportable frère, Edward, un fainéant alcoolique qui vit aux crochets de leur mère malade. Cette merveilleuse mécanique commence à se dérégler quand Susan apprend qu’elle est enceinte (comment a-t-elle pu faire une erreur aussi énorme?) et que sa mère décède en laissant à Edward la totalité de sa maison (comment sa mère a-t-elle pu la trahir ainsi?). Hors de question de garder Richard, le père de l’enfant, dans le paysage, leur accord était très clair, et hors de question de laisser son frère hériter! Déterminée, inflexible, Susan se bat sur tous les fronts, en vain. L’inaccessible 'cactus' va-t-il enfin laisser un peu de place à l'improvisation et au lâcher-prise? Couverture rigide.

Family and colleagues find her stand-offish and hard to understand, but Susan makes perfect sense to herself, and that's all she needs. At forty-five, she thinks her life is perfect, as long as she avoids her feckless brother, Edward - a safe distance away in Birmingham. She has a London flat which is ideal for one; a job that suits her passion for logic; and a personal arrangement providing cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. Yet suddenly faced with the loss of her mother and, implausibly, with the possibility of becoming a mother herself, Susan's greatest fear is being realised: she is losing control. When she discovers that her mother's will inexplicably favours her brother, Susan sets out to prove that Edward and his equally feckless friend Rob somehow coerced this dubious outcome. But when problems closer to home become increasingly hard to ignore, she finds help in the most unlikely of places. This sparkling debut is a breath of fresh air with real heart and a powerful emotional punch. In Susan we find a character as exasperating and delightful as The Rosie Project's Don Tillman. An uncompromising feminist and a fierce fighter, it's a joy to watch her bloom.