A bittersweet and hilarious novel about a marriage whose decades-old routine is suddenly
upended. "Darkly funny."-The Times Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the
narrow comfortable confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without
learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all he could always count on his
wife Barbara. But when one morning she can't -or won't! -get up from bed anymore everything
changes. With biting humour and great warmth Alina Bronsky writes about how Walter nearing
the end of his life is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver and househusband
and become the caring partner he never was in all his years with Barbara. Little by little
Walter's rough facade begins to crumble and with it his old certainties about his life and
family.
