A PATCHWORK PLANET

Barnaby Gaitlin is a loser - just short of thirty, he's the black sheep ofa philanthropic Baltimore family. Once upon a time, he had a home, aloving wife, a little family of his own; now he has an ex-wife, a 9-yearold daughter with attitude, a Corvette Sting Ray that's a collector's itembut unreliable, and he works as hired muscle for Rent-a-Back, doing heavychores for old folks. He has an almost pathological curiosity about otherpeople's lives, which has got him into serious trouble in the past, and ahopeless charm which attracts the kind of angelic woman who wants to savehim from himself. Tyler's observation is more acute, more delicious thanever; her humour slyer and more irresistible; her characters so vividlyrealised that you feel you've known this quirky collection for ever. Withperfect pitch and poise, humour and humanity, Anne Tyler chronicles,better than any writer today, the sublime and the ridiculous of everydayliving, the foibles and frailties of the ordinary human heart.