At the beginning of this novel, 20-year-old, single Sharon is telling her parents that she's pregnant. Instead of histrionics, her mother wearily corrects her grammar and her father invites her down to the pub for a drink. The story unfolds from Sharon's announcement to the birth of her "snapper." It should be a depressing read: Sharon works as a shelf-stacker, became pregnant when she was too drunk to know what she was doing and lives in a small house with her large family. Instead it's a

—Rosamund Lupton