Rise And Fall Of A Domestic Diva

We've all done it...told a tiny white lie that has grown so out of control that we find ourselves committed to moving house to another country‚ leaving our husband‚ becoming a missionary‚ doing anything - ANYTHING! - to stop people from discovering the truth.

Living on the upwardly mobile Prendergast Road‚ nestled deep in Nappy Valley‚ Kate Hudson's particular truth is that her son has just been rejected by the only decent school in the neighbourhood and so is doomed to a life of crime‚ drugs and being shunned by everyone else on the street. And she might‚ just might‚ be guilty of sometimes‚ in moments of extreme pressure‚ forgetting she has a daughter‚ a bundle of screaming‚ excreting noise called Flo... Not to mention that she doesn't always buy Fair Trade coffee‚ she sometimes isn't as nice to her husband as she ought to be‚ and she's convinced that one day all this will come crashing down around her ears.

But Kate never has a spare moment to stop to think that‚ beneath the perfect sheen of her friends' and neighbours' amazingly trouble-free lives‚ beneath the freshly-ironed shirts and organic home-grown veg‚ lies the same half-truths‚ the same uncertainties and the same desperation to keep up with the Joneses - who just happen to be her.

Sarah May is an intimate observer of society (AKA curtain-twitcher of the highest order) and her novel is an hilariously dark-hearted soap opera of our everyday lives. In a society that always strives to be more organic‚ less carbon-polluting‚ more virtuous than any other‚ 'The Fall and Rise of the Domestic Diva' is a breath of fresh air (imported from the mountains of Nepal and filtered organically for purity‚ of course).