The Burnout
Sophie Kinsella (Bantam)
As funny and perfectly plotted as all Kinsella’s books, but with an out-of-season coastal town setting that adds a bittersweet quality to this tale of young people’s anxiety and, eventually, huge love. Kinsella is justly lauded for her comedy – if she was a man, she’d have won the Wodehouse prize by now – but she also brings a wistfulness to her characters, and a sharp awareness of contemporary concerns, from consumerism to workplace etiquette to social media. Sasha in The Burnout is suffering from terrible anxiety, overwork and an always-on culture, and the book is true, sweet, sad, romantic and genuinely uplifting.
