Exit Lines

You might think life in a retirement home would be peaceful, maybe even boring, but in the Idyll Inn of this pithy, provocative and marvellously funny novel, not everyone feels ready for the quiet life. But wait, maybe one resident does! Oh dear.
That "Barfoot is both harrowing and hilarious" (Independent on Sunday, UK) is a clue that as seniors begin settling into the spiffy new Idyll Inn, they won’t necessarily have in mind settling down. Four of them form their own little group dedicated, among other things, to small acts of pleasurable rebellion, not least the consumption of decent wines. Their spouses are dead or beyond recall. In their pasts they've had a few connections, both faint and bold, with each other - even tiny, kindly Ruth has some gossamer ties to her new companions. And now she has hopes of recruiting them for an act that is to be the most significant collaboration in their hitherto law-abiding lives - one that needs undertaking in the, er, dead of night.

Exit Lines weaves deliciously dark comedy into the most serious subjects humans can deal with: mercy and cruelty, faith and friendship, limits and loyalties - not to mention death itself...