The entire story is narrated into an iPhone. Why? Crosby Ravensworth is so busy he can’t make time to scatter his father’s ashes, nor to sort out the dysfunctional family he hoped he’d left behind, nor to decide which of the four women in his life he should connect to.
His father has committed suicide and the funeral will be the first time Crosby meets any of his uneasy family for five years – his stepmother (who never accepted him), his stepbrother (a priest), his half-sister (a businesswoman, ever on the phone like Crosby) and his youngest half-brother (out of work). Crosby leaves with a sealed box of his father’s papers, a last letter and the task of scattering his father’s ashes at a quiet location in the Lake District. When he has time.
He’s a 24/7 guy whose work takes him to some great places – Venice, California, Munich – even if he doesn’t get to spend much time in them (hardly any, to tell the truth). And he gets to travel all over Britain to, well, Hartlepool, Carlisle, Birmingham . . .
He lives in Staines.
At the start of his story he has a permanent girlfriend (a lovely girl with all too permanent ambitions) and an ex-girlfriend upstairs. Then he meets a wonder-woman in America and his brother’s girlfriend with her long blonde hair and biking leathers.
He really will have to make some choices.
