Marina Lewycka Book order (chronological)
Marina Lewycka is a British author whose works often delve into the intricacies of family relationships and cultural clashes. Her writing is characterized by a witty observation of human nature, frequently weaving humor with a profound understanding of human suffering. Lewycka explores themes of identity, migration, and the search for belonging, as her characters navigate between different worlds and traditions. Her aim is to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit and the complex bonds that connect us all.







The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid
- 272 pages
- 10 hours of reading
After walking out on his wife to shack up with 'Brexit Brenda' next door, George Pantis thinks he's got it made - especially when he wins millions on a Kosovan lottery he barely remembers entering. Unfortunately, he can't access the money because he's forgotten his password. What is he meant to tell all the forceful people who keep appearing at his doorstep desperate to know his mother's maiden name? The situation is shadier than he thinks, and George is need of rescue. But will his dysfunctional family be able to save him, and in the process, can they save each other?
The Lubetkin Legacy
- 368 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Hilarious new novel from the bestselling author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian . North London in the twenty-first century: a place where a son will swiftly adopt an old lady and take her home from hospital to impersonate his dear departed mother, rather than lose the council flat. A time of golden job opportunities, though you might have to dress up as a coffee bean or work as an intern at an undertaker or put up with champagne and posh French dinners while your boss hits on you. A place rich in language - whether it's Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Swahili or buxom housing officers talking managementese. A place where husbands go absent without leave and councillors sacrifice cherry orchards at the altar of new builds. Marina Lewycka is back in this hilarious, farcical, tender novel of modern issues and manners.
Marcus and Doro were part of a commune from the late 1960s until the early 1990s: lentils, free love, spliffs, radical politics, cheesecloth blouses, sex, housework and cooking rotas, crochet, allotments. Their children have grown up differently from them: primary school teacher Clara craves order and clean bathrooms ; son Serge is pretending he is still doing a doctorate at Cambridge ; while third child Oolie Anna, who has Downs Syndrome, is desperate to escape home and live on her own. Once the truth starts breaking through, who knows what further secrets will be revealed about any of them? Risible tale of modern values, featuring hamsters, cockroaches, poodles, a chicken and multiplying rabbits.
Georgie Sinclair's life is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's obsessed with the End of the World. And now her elderly neighbour Mrs Shapiro has decided they are related. Or so the hospital informs her when Mrs Shapiro has an accident and names Georgie next of kin. This, however, is not a case of a quick ward visit: Mrs Shapiro has a large rickety house full of stinky cats that needs looking after that a pair of estate agents seem intent on swindling from her. Plus there are the 'Uselesses' trying to repair it (uselessly). Then there's the social worker who wants to put her in a nursing home. Not to mention some letters that point to a mysterious, painful past. As Georgie tries her best to put Mrs Shapiro's life back together somehow she must stop her own from falling apart.
Co může mít společného Irina, mladá, krásná a vzdělaná Ukrajinka plná ideálů, Andrij, bývalý horník, sotva dospělý Malawijec Emanuel, polská ortodoxní katolička Jola, její praktická teta Marta, dvě čínské dívky a pes jménem Pes? Zdánlivě nic, snad jen místo, kde se potkávají. Na kraji jahodového pole uprostřed britského Kentu stojí dva karavany, jeden určený pro ženské sběračky jahod, druhý pro muže. Pojí je několik věcí: touha vydělat si a zajistit si tak lepší život, než jaký jim nabízí jejich rodné země a sny, naděje, touha.
A beautiful summer ́s evening in a Kent field and around their two caravans a group of strawberry pickers celebrates a birthday. An idyllic scence. But this is a group leading dangerous lives - exploitative employers, British regulations and gang masters with guns will all threaten them as they take to the caravan road to find their destinies.
A short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
- 324 pages
- 12 hours of reading
"Two days after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside." When their recently widowed father announces he plans to remarry, sisters Vera and Nadezhda realize they must put aside a lifetime of feuding in order to save him. His new love is a voluptuous gold-digger from the Ukraine half his age, with a proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, who stops at nothing in her single-minded pursuit of the luxurious Western lifestyle she dreams of. But the old man, too, is pursuing his eccentric dreams - and writing a history of tractors in Ukrainian. A wise, tender and deeply funny novel about families, the healing of old wounds, the trials and consolations of old age and - really - about the legacy of Europe's history over the last fifty years.

