A Robot in the Garden

Funny, touching, charming, wise and a bit magical, this is a novel that explores what it is to be a man, a sentient being and even a parent. A gem of a first novel, especially for anyone who has ever found it difficult to connect with the world. For fans of Nick Hornby's About a Boy, and Wall-E. Ben Chambers wakes up to find an unfamiliar object - rusty and lost - sitting underneath the willow tree in his garden. Refusing to throw it on the skip as his wife Amy advises, he takes it home. Ben does not want children, or even a job, and now he has found yet another reason to stay in his study and ignore everyone around him. It is only when Amy walks out that Ben realises he has now alienated all the human beings in his life. He has only one friend left. This is the story of an unlikely friendship, and how one man opens his heart to a past he did not want, and a future he cannot lose.