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How Hard Can It Be?
Allison Pearson
Kate Reddy is counting down the days until she is fifty, but not in a good way.Fifty, in Kate’s mind, equals invisibility, and she’s caught between her traitorous hormones, unknowable teenage children and ailing parents.She’s back at work after a break, now that her husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness. But just as Kate is finding a few tricks to get by, her old client and flame Jack reappears – complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it…
Copyright (#ulink_0ad0f96b-2a72-5e3a-9670-98305f08be52)
The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copyright © Allison Pearson 2017
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Hand lettering by Ruth Rowland. Cover illustration by Henn Kim
Allison Pearson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books
Source ISBN: 9780008150556
Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008150549
Version: 2018-03-22
Praise for How Hard Can It Be? (#ulink_0a0638f7-e4a3-5869-aa16-b74e92fd5e46)
‘Revolutionary … Both funny and unflinching’
ELIZABETH DAY, Daily Telegraph
‘Once again, countless women will recognise themselves … Pearson has a gift’
The Times
‘Zesty, razor-sharp and hilarious … Get ready for Kate!’
TINA BROWN, magazine editor and bestselling author
‘Sharply observed and very funny’
Woman & Home
‘Made me laugh, wince, shudder and shed a tear!’
SOPHIE KINSELLA
‘As sharp and witty as ever … hugely enjoyable’
Daily Mail
‘Funny, heart-breaking, wise and delightful’
SOPHIE HANNAH
‘How Hard Can It Be? is that rare thing: a sequel that matches and even surpasses the original’
Daily Telegraph
‘Brilliantly well observed’
INDIA KNIGHT
‘Pearson deftly balances despair-inducing observations with escapist pizzazz’
Mail on Sunday
‘Pearson makes a sharp point about the lack of value and status that society places on the onerous job of a stay at home mother … in these pages, there is a raw honesty’
Financial Times
‘Sparkling, funny and poignant, this is a triumphant return for Pearson and hopefully not the last we will hear of Kate’
Daily Express
‘A cutting edge of its own’
Metro
‘Wildly entertaining’
Reader’s Digest
‘[Pearson] nails the comedy and the pathos of daily domestic life like no one else’
Country Life
‘Poignant and smart takes on the pressures affecting working mothers … laugh out loud funny’
Women’s Agenda
‘[Peason writes] with acid and a daunting determination to tell it like it is’
New Zealand Herald
Dedication (#ulink_10d9c04a-9318-52ae-9a2a-f896e4969ed9)
For Awen and Evie,
my mother and my daughter
Epigraph (#ulink_10d9c04a-9318-52ae-9a2a-f896e4969ed9)
Conceal me what I am, and by my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent.
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Nobody tells you about the balding pudenda.
Whoopi Goldberg
Contents
Cover (#ucf7a6c42-569f-5421-9638-87e69fd92f5f)
Title Page (#u343c1de5-c45d-5a9e-9c7b-c3d8fa6d7312)
Copyright (#uc7a39da7-2baa-5d5c-8df0-6f150aa4e665)
Praise (#u3d16ba53-2809-5bd4-b7e2-a8b269051e95)
Dedication (#ue88133f8-40e2-52b5-b12b-fd629d2362ef)
Epigraph (#uffe8321d-3a41-5ce4-ab24-ecda437ac99a)
Prologue: Countdown to Invisibility: T minus six months and two days (#ua92c7fbc-75ec-5e35-bc0e-0593a1def1c9)
1. Bats in the Belfie (#u02b281bc-f673-532e-bdbd-8b0cc5288ef1)
2. The Has-been (#uea2ad9a5-6f2c-502e-a3d8-731f32fba2c8)
3. The Bottom Line (#ub04d491a-faaa-5619-89c8-090984fe0d24)
4. Ghosts (#ufc34d1e1-e3c4-56ae-9029-02db33be0351)
5. Five More Minutes (#ue5ad5165-e9a1-5073-aba9-d0210178d368)
6. Of Mice and Menopause (#litres_trial_promo)
7. Back to the Future (#litres_trial_promo)
8. Old and New (#litres_trial_promo)
9. Genuine Fake (#litres_trial_promo)
10. Rebirth of a Saleswoman (#litres_trial_promo)
11. Twelfth Night (or What You Won’t) (#litres_trial_promo)
12. Catch-32 (#litres_trial_promo)
13. Those Stubborn Areas (#litres_trial_promo)
14. The College Reunion (#litres_trial_promo)
15. Calamity Girl (#litres_trial_promo)
16. Help! (#litres_trial_promo)
17. The Rock Widow (#litres_trial_promo)
18. The Office Party (#litres_trial_promo)
19. Coitus Interruptus (#litres_trial_promo)
20. Merry Christmas (#litres_trial_promo)
21. The Mere Idea of You (#litres_trial_promo)
22. Madonna and Mum (#litres_trial_promo)
23. Never Can Say Goodbye (#litres_trial_promo)
24. For Whom the Belfie Tolls (#litres_trial_promo)
25. Cut to the Quick (#litres_trial_promo)
26. Redemption (#litres_trial_promo)
27. Guilty Secret (#litres_trial_promo)
