Blood

Bernadine Evaristo, Booker Prizewinner 2019 - Book of the Year, Financial Times
Blood by Maggie Gee is a very funny and daring novel about Monica, an unforgettable, galumphing, middle-aged school teacher and misfit, whose deluded self-belief and critical observations about the rest of humankind hide a deep-seated trauma. Gee weaves the seriousness of Brexit politics and bigotry in a seaside Kentish town with the psychological legacy of violent parenting in a thrillerish blend of whodunnit-cum-family drama.

"An astonishing book. Funny and fierce, written with style and dash, without fear." --Hilary Mantel

Who attacked Dad?
When a corrupt, brutal dentist, Albert Ludd, is found battered and bloody after failing to attend a memorial party for his youngest son, suspicion falls on the dentist's other children, especially on Dad's middle daughter, 37-year-old buxom bruiser Monica Ludd, who was heard 'uttering threats' against her absent father. How come her car is found outside Dad's house? Why did she buy a large axe? And yet, Monica's a deputy head teacher...
Blood is a Gothic black comedy seen through the eyes of six-foot Monica, who cannot help speaking her secret thoughts aloud and who has been banned by the principal of her school, from using social media. '"Parents are sensitive to abuse." "Neil, I would never abuse our parents." "Governors queried 'moron' and 'twat'." ' Set in an angry, anarchic, Brexit-ing Britain where terrorism has become routine, Blood also asks serious questions about modern life: what can we do with the brutal men who bully women and the weak? Can we wait for a world of order and justice? If we hit back, can the circle of violence ever be broken?