Observer
Marian Keyes has created three alarmingly recognisable characters in this tale about the pursuit of happiness. Lisa is the bitchy editor of London Femme magazine, compensating for feelings of insecurity by making others feel inadequate. But she gets a taste of her own medicine when instead of being offered the job of editor at a fashionable New York magazine, she is redeployed to rainy Dublin to start Colleen, a magazine for Irish women.
Among her small group of staff is Ashling, the naïve assistant editor who gradullay learns that working in publishing is like learning to use chop sticks - it is tricky, delicate and slippery process. Ashling really wants to be like her friend, Clodagh - beautiful, adored by her wonderful husband, suffocated by her two charming children and looking for contentment in new clothes and furnishings.
The elusive goal of happiness is a familiar one for Keyes and that is why she writes about it with such dexterity. Niamh Cusack completes this audacious audio delight with her versatile native Irish accent. In the role of Ashling, she whines and pants like a puppy but surpasses all expectations as the snappy, idea-snatching Lisa.