How to Leave the House tells the story of twenty-four hours in the life of Natwest, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. It’s Natwest’s last day before he leaves for university, and there’s only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house – which still hasn’t arrived. He won’t leave town without it. Any alternative is too distressing to consider.

It’s also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist, but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. A story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; and an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. The story of Natwest’s obnoxious ex-boyfriend, and his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend, and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest’s past.

Alternating between Natwest’s idiosyncratic inner world and the perspectives of the other characters – and dazzling in its energy, imagination and originality – this is an outrageously funny and tenderly moving story about being connected to everyone and everything at all times; about love, friendship, and the lies we tell ourselves; about unhappy endings, happy endings – and whether anything really is as simple as one or the other.

Available from Penguin Random House

Nathan Newman is a novelist and filmmaker based in London. Their short stories have won awards and been published in literary journals and anthologies. Their debut novel is due to be published by Little Brown in the UK, and Viking Penguin in the USA. A television adaptation of How to Leave the House is being developed by Freemantle, with Nathan set to write the episodes.

 

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.