Almost forty and with nothing to show for it, Hannah Luckraft is starting to notice that her lifestyle is not entirely sustainable: her subconscious is turning against her, her soul is a little unwell. Her family is wounded, her friends are odd, her body is not as reliable as it once was and her drinking is frankly out of hand. Robert, a dissolute dentist, appears to offer a love she can understand, but he may only be one more symptom of the problem she must cure. From the north-east of Scotland to Dublin, from London to Montreal, to Budapest and onwards, Hannah travels in search of the ultimate altered state: the one where she can be happy - her paradise. Paradise is a compelling examination of failure that is also a comic triumph, a novel of dark extremes that is full of the most ravishing lyrical beauty.
'A truly superb novel-Often very funny, filled with sardonic one-liners that encapsulate the plight of the heavy drinker-An enormous pleasure to read...Simply brilliant' Scotland on Sunday
'An unflinching book, elevated by the sublime quality of Kennedy's writing. Lacerating comedy is pitted against passages of sheer beauty' Independent on Sunday
A. L. Kennedy has published three previous novels, two books of non-fiction, and three collections of stories, most recently 'Indelible Acts' in 2002. She lives in Glasgow.
