In his tense and darkly comic new novel Norton casts a light on the relationship between mothers and daughters, and truth and self-preservation with unnerving effect. The latest comedy noir by Graham Norton features fractured families at their worst. I loved it!' LIZ NUGENT What a fabulous read... Forever Home is his best so far. It's a complex and compelling story - truly unputdownable - but most importantly for me, it has real heart.' MARY LAWSON

Forever Home – HarperCollins Forever Home – HarperCollins

Carol is devasted knowing Declan would be against selling the family home but with no other choice she moves in with her mother Moira. After Declan is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, Carol stops teaching and turns to full-time care of her partner. Norton paints a frank picture of the harrowing fatigue involved in caring. The ungoverned matter of care-giving and love is inextricable; it is a civil duty demanded of half the world’s population. For women, love and unpaid caring duties are often an involuntary undertaking we are forced to perform. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. Declan's wife left him. He doesn't want to talk about it. Not to his young children, son Killan and daughter Sally, and not to the gossip mongers in the town in Ireland. No one really understands why she let. But one thing is for sure. Her children can't forgive her. The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.There's a large cast of characters from: Carol, a divorced teacher, her easy-going boyfriend Declan, Carol's energetic and opinionated mother, Moira (who I enjoyed and laughed about), Carol's father, her only son, and Declan's selfish, adult children: one is a gay son married to his partner and the other is a fractured daughter. Carol’s mother is determined to get to the bottom of things, she won’t see her daughter suffer in this way. It seems there are secrets in Declan’s past, strange rumours that were never confronted and suddenly the house they shared takes on a more sinister significance. NORTON: ...Is taken from my mother, where - you know, silence in the car to me is you're driving along silently. For my mother, it is a constant monologue...

Forever Home by Graham Norton - Fantastic Fiction Forever Home by Graham Norton - Fantastic Fiction

Carol’s mother is determined to get to the bottom of things—she won't see her daughter suffer this way. It seems there are secrets in Declan's past, strange rumors that were never confronted, and suddenly the house they shared takes on a more sinister significance that affects them all. So, Carol, must vacate the house and move in with her parents Moira, her judgmental mother and Dave, her quiet seemingly spacy father who only seems to do as he is told. How could this happen to her, especially at her age? The list of celebrities who have published novels is long and weird. Did the world really need YA dystopia from Kylie and Kendall Jenner, or stream-of-consciousness blather from Morrissey? Even Tom Hanks couldn’t win over critics with his 2017 short story collection, Uncommon Type. But it seems the world could always do with more Graham Norton.NORTON: Well, she's kind of mine, too. And she changed the book, you know? She was the one who brought so much comedy 'cause she's just a funny woman. And so she turned something quite dark into a sort of dark romp, I would say. Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland, her only son now grown. A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging. The new relationship sparks local speculation: what does a woman like her see in a man like that? What happened to his wife who abandoned them all those years ago? But the gossip only serves to bring the couple closer. Carol has lived for years in a grand old terraced house with the “second love of her life”, Declan. Declan’s wife has long since disappeared, having left “poor Mr Barry” and their children without a trace, many years previously. That’s all in the past, or so it seems, until Declan falls ill and ends up in permanent care, and disputes over ownership of the house end up uncovering darker secrets involving, you guessed it, a dead body.