The Tap Dancer: A hilarious prize-winning bittersweet literary comedy fiction novel with dark undertones

‘My favourite novel and one I wish I’d written.’ ALAN BENNETT Winner of the McKitterick Prize for best first novel by an author aged over 40, and the Hawthornden Prize for imaginative literature. Everyone craves retirement from the Civil Service, don’t they? That time for an ageing patriarch to enjoy the fruits of a well-earned pension and the respect of his family; maybe even to indulge in a love of music halls and metropolitan life. If only people would listen and do as they were told… His fourth son William, the long-suffering narrator, is the constant butt of his father’s jokes and victim of his brothers’ indifference. But as death, divorce and other darker dramas follow, father and son slowly establish a strange harmony. The Tap Dancer, the latest from award-winning author Andrew Barrow, is a humorous fiction that has been short-listed for its literary excellence. This new classic is a top choice for readers around the globe. For fans of William Boyd (The Blue Afternoon), Alan Bennett (The Laying On Of Hands), Anne Tyler (If Morning Ever Comes), Nina Stibbe (One Day I Shall Astonish the World), and Rose Tremain (Absolutely and Forever). HarperCollins 2023