Peck & Peck | Bonnie Garmus

The author of the global sensation, Lessons in Chemistry is back.

Peck & Peck tells the irresistible story of a young man whose life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck.

Batter Gray is worried about his future. Even when he was eleven, his classmates seemed to have settled on a goal: doctor, lawyer, broker, engineer. Good jobs that automatically command respect and security. Now Batter is in his early 20s, living in New York City, and he wants something different; something that alienates some people and bores most. Poetry. And yet to him - and exactly thirty-nine editors at a company called Peck & Peck - poetry not only represents the power of humanity but holds the key to its survival.

Batter was named after his mother's dog, who seemed to have achieved more in his short years on earth than he ever will. But as an identical twin who lost his brother at birth, Batter finds himself confronted by the everyday dualities that make up life: right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, rejection vs. acceptance. It's almost as if his dead brother is a reminder: there are always two sides to every story. No, wait. Make that three.

In Peck & Peck Bonnie Garmus has created a tour de force. Hugely original, brilliantly funny and peopled with unforgettable characters, Peck & Peck is both a passionate ode to the written word and a heartwarming exploration of all that makes us human.

Charming, uplifting, soulful, and original, Peck & Peck is the perfect successor to Lessons In Chemistry. If you loved Elizabeth Zott, you will adore Batter Gray. -Kristin Hannah This novel is everything: a love story, a literary thriller, a brilliant satire that's full of humor and heart. Only Bonnie Garmus can write like this. -Meg Mason, international bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss. An absolute triumph of storytelling, writing and characterisation, Peck & Peck had me from the first sentence. This is a glorious celebration of, and plea for, the creative arts, with a cast of truly unforgettable characters, from the eponymous Peck and Peck to the excellently named narrator Batter Gray. I won't forget this book. Ever. -Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things It was an absolute delight to escape into Bonnie Garmus's world of delinquent poets, demented publishers and recherche fonts. Her exuberant comedy and freewheeling imagination reminded me of John Irving in his prime. Many congratulations - no 'difficult second album' for Bonnie Garmus - I thought it was even better than her first. - Clare Chambers, bestselling author of Small Pleasures

Bonnie Garmus is a coffee-dependent American novelist. Her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, was a number one global bestseller and spent almost ninety weeks in the Sunday Times top 10. It was named by New York Times readers as one of the top 100 books of the 21st Century. Translated into forty-four languages, Lessons in Chemistry was honoured with sixteen international literary awards, including the British Book Awards Author of the Year, Waterstones Author of the Year, and Hay Festival's Book of the Year. It was also selected by Queen Camilla for the Queen's Reading Room, and made into an Apple TV limited series. Peck & Peck is her second novel.