Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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Cleopatra and Frankenstein
Narrated by:
Kit Griffiths
Buy Now for £14.74
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Narrated by:
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Kit Griffiths
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By:
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Coco Mellors
The smash-hit national bestseller and Goodreads Choice Award finalist from the New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters. An addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple’s impulsive marriage.
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it’s Cleo’s best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo’s marriage, or Frank’s financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.
As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.©2022 Coco Mellors
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Critic reviews
If Conversations With Friends has you yearning to read about more dysfunctional relationships, look no further than Cleopatra and Frankenstein. … This is a perfect read who loves a story with finely drawn characters you'll grow to care about.
A clever debut novel… Cleo is a … self-possessed literary heroine.
Cleo is a 24-year-old painter with an expiring student visa; Frank is 20 years older and financially stable (and then some). Their “impulsive marriage” sets off all sorts of reactions in their circle of friends and family—not to mention their individual reactions as they settle in as husband and wife. It’s giving me early-season Girls vibes, which I’m very much here for.
Tantalizing … cinematic … [Mellors] has written some extraordinary sentences and shows a great talent for dialogue.
An irresistible, un-put-downable, page-turner of a novel. A love letter to New York, a love letter to love, Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a complex, funny, deeply-felt, beautifully written debut.
Every sentence of Coco Mellors' debut novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein shimmers with wit and wisdom. Masterfully told through multiple voices, Cleopatra and Frankenstein offers an intimate glimpse of a marriage marred by alcoholism and mental illness. Mellors' real genius lies in her ability to render the pervasive damage wrought by those suffering from addiction, trauma, and mental illness with enough compassion that readers will find themselves rooting for each of the characters, firmly invested in their ability to wrest recovery and hope from the wreckage. Mellors' brilliantly crafted story and unforgettable characters offer unvarnished insight into the very heart of what it means to be human. I will be pressing this book into all my friends' hands.
Mellors’ remarkably assured and sensitive debut … strongly evoke[s] Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, but Mellors also cultivates a sprightlier style that keeps the novel’s familiar tropes from feeling clichéd or reducing her characters to types … At its core, it’s a novel about how love and lovers are easily misinterpreted and how romantic troubles affect friends and family. A canny and engrossing rewiring of the big-city romance.
Mellors dissects the tumultuous relationship between two magnetic and damaged people … an enticing aura glows at this work’s heart.
Ripples from one couple's tumultuous relationship spread widely in Coco Mellors's engaging debut novel … creating a nuanced, deeply emotional journey for her cast. Mellors's prose is a compelling balance of beautiful phrasing and snappy dialogue that propels the story while allowing time for reflection … it's the fullness of their humanity that makes Cleopatra and Frankenstein a worthwhile read. The beauty lies in the broken bits, and Mellors captures both.
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