Not the End of the World [Advance Reading Copy]

Arthur is a precocious and inquisitive 8-year-old boy whose mother is a B-list celebrity more concerned with the state of her bank account than with her son's development. With a new baby on the way, Arthur's mother hires--or is she hired by?--an enigmatic young nanny named Missy, who takes Arthur under her wing. In pursuit of art, culture, and finally Arthur's own missing father, Missy introduces him to a world he never knew existed. It's Kate Atkinson's world, and Arthur is just one of its inhabitants--hidden connections link him to an entire constellation of characters who live unpredictably between reality and fantasy. The same wry humor and keen observation that have won Atkinson critical and popular acclaim make her new book crackle with life. Equally inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses and Prada, by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Barbie, NOT THE END OF THE WORLD is further proof of Kate Atkinson's formidable powers as a writer of comedy and substance.

Kate Atkinson was born in New York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, was named Whitbread Book of the Year in the U.K. in 1995 and was followed by Human Croquet and Emotionally Weird.