Housewife with a Half-Life by A.B.Wells


A.B.Wells is the not so secret pen name of Alison Wells who has been shortlisted for a number of literary awards including the Hennessy and Fish awards. Alison has also been published in a number of e-zines and anthologies. Housewife is her first novel published last year and launched in Hughes & Hughes; the novel can be purchased through Amazon and in selected bookshops. In her A. B Wells persona Alison has crafted a witty, weird and wonderful book that is almost impossible to pin down with anything as mundane as description. The basic premise is that housewife Susan Strong is a harassed mother of twin boys who lives a life of cooking, cleaning, bath time and general drudgery when one day she is visited by a strange man who claims to be her Fairy Godfather or Fairly Dave as he likes to be called. Dave explains that Susan is losing pieces of herself and he wants to help. As Susan and her twins Rufus and Pluto are dragged through weird dreams and strange alternate realities they discover that a ruthless Spinner is trying to destroy the universe. He needs to be stopped.  Alison's tale is inspired by her love of physics and science fiction, it features household objects with minds of their own and evil gnomes and geezers. Susan time travels back to her awkward teen age self and forward to a wrinkled white haired old lady. Alison poses deep questions about life and its meaning, about our destiny and the choices we make but they are wrapped in the surreal and funny tale of Susan and Fairly Dave. This book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but if you enjoy the surreal humour of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams then this will have you laughing out loud.

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