Asby Book Club

“Rough Music”
Patrick Gale

Lead: Erica

Patrick Gale’s books examine the vagaries of the human heart and awkward family relationships.

For his fortieth birthday, a gay bookseller is given a holiday in a seaside cottage in North Cornwall.  He takes his parents, who need the break because his mother has early onset Alzheimer’s, his nephews and his married lover, who just happens to be his brother in law.  Not a recipe for success!

Meanwhile, back in in 1968, the forty something governor of Wandsworth Prison also takes his wife and small boy on holiday to Cornwall, full of good intentions about the quality time they are going to share together. Things horribly wrong though when there is a break out at the prison and he has to go back to work.

As the novel unfolds we learn that the holidays are linked and that it is the same family and two different points in their lives. The novel examines the painful realities about being a gay child, of unrequited marital love and of losing one’s mind!

All welcome – no fees – just come along to listen even if you have not read the book.