- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; First edition (5 April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007156537
- ISBN-13: 978-0007156535
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.4 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,303,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for The Truth About Babies by Ian Sansom:
‘A sensitive and unique meditation which is as much about the transformation wrought upon his own life as about his baby’
The Times
‘A true and beautiful book … Every new parent should have a copy for their journey through that first year'
Guardian
‘Funny, brave, touching and true: the exhaustion, shock and queasy compromise of new parenthood are evoked by Sansom with terrifying honesty — but all parents everywhere will recognise that it's really a book about love’.
Julie Myerson
‘For those who have waded through shelves of works by psychologists and pediatricians and would like a profoundly funny and wise book on the subject, The Truth About Babies is one of the most interesting and literate meditations available.’
The Los Angeles Times
Francis King, Spectator
'Here is no ordinary talent, but a writer with a viewpoint and a voice very much of his own.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A friend recommended this novel saying that it was a really extraordinary read, so I plowed straight in. I've never read anything else by Sansom but clearly he is something special. The humour, pathos and amazing character work in here surpasses pretty much every modern novel I've ever read - it's basically Dickens for the modern age and I knew I was enjoying it because I genuinely didn't know whether to laugh or cry all the way through and two weeks after finishing it, it's still very much in my consciousness. I can't wait for Sansom's next offering and this is surely Booker material...
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read Sansom's first book about babies and really enjoyed it - I recommended it to all my friends having babies, although to be honest I did think it was a bit weird. So I was interested to see what his novel would be like. Again, it's a bit weird, but in a good way.
It's about all these characters living on a ring road, living their lives, and the characterisation is brilliant. There's a preface and an index as well, which made me think of a kind of nineteenth-century novel. It's not like a modern novel at all. The style is very clear, but he deals with all these big questions at the same time, which is very clever, and very entertaining. It reminded me of Dave Eggers, but also Iris Murdoch. I've also heard him this week reading it on the radio, and as it says on the book jacket, he's a bit like Garrison Keillor, although with a squeaky voice.
All in all, really quite brilliant, and an excellent read. I would definitely recommend it.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm a big fan of Sansom's very fine and sometimes splenetic little reviews in the Guardian, and so was expecting something both substantial and readable in the novel. I was discomforted by the book's cover (what is it? a tabletop?) and confused by the preface (what is he trying to do here?), but delighted by the novel itself, which is hilariously funny and very, very dark. Cleverly constructed, like a ring road itself. The book also has an index, which made me laugh out loud. I read a lot of contemporary fiction, and for me this book is comparable to the likes of Alasdair Gray and Philip Roth in American Pastoral. If you like The Office, you'll probably enjoy this: it'd make a great tv series, which is not something you can say about most serious fiction. More like Dickens than Dave Eggers, actually.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Genius - just read it
A friend recommended this novel saying that it was a really extraordinary read, so I plowed straight in. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2004
Derivative of Garrison Keillor
Like an English Garrison Keillor, but not as wry and without that sometime ago feeling.
Published on 25 April 2004
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