Book Excerpt

''Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle; it didn''t matter what''

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God''s elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts.

At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.

''Witty… extraordinary and exhilarating'' The Times

''She is a master of her material, a writer in whom great talent abides'' Vanity Fair

''Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language... In her hands, words are fluid, radiant, humming'' Evening Standard

''A novel that deserves revisiting'' Observer

''A wonderful rites-of-passage novel'' Mariella Frostrup