The Happiness Show

‘A funny, feisty read. I was hooked from the first page.’ – Mia Freedman

‘An insightful, lusty and irreverent exploration of love and marriage. A great read.’ –Claudia Karvan

She ached for him. She longed for him. She missed the way he made her feel and how funny and smart and sexy she felt with him. And young. She missed the version of herself that she had left behind.

At thirty-eight, Lizzie Quealy thinks she has things sorted: a happy relationship, a couple of gorgeous kids, a steadfast best friend and a career she loves. But when Lizzie bumps into Tom, an old flame from her globe-trotting twenties, her life begins to unravel.

Tom is her ‘unfinished business’: the man she might have spent her life with, if things had gone a little differently. Ten years on, the spark is still there – but how far is Lizzie prepared to go to recapture it, and at what cost?

Set in Melbourne, London and Bali, via Tokyo and the Trans-Siberian Express, The Happiness Show is a refreshingly honest story about love, fidelity and the messiness of second chances. Sexy and hilarious, it explores the rules and taboos of contemporary relationships – and what happens when they stand in the way of one woman’s pursuit of happiness.

Catherine Deveny is a writer, comedian, social commentator and the author of It’s Not My Fault They Print Them (2007), Say When (2008) and Free to a Good Home (2009). Her website is www.catherinedeveny.com