Happy Is the One

The carefully ordered life of a middle-aged man falls apart when he is forced to return to his hometown to care for his elderly father, and meets a woman who has as many secrets as he does ... A warmly funny, poignant, life-affirming novel about coming home and letting go.

A moving and emotional story told with warmth and humour ... a book to curl up with and forget about the world Eleanor Ray

A novel so full of heart it will pull on your heartstrings and nestle itself into your soul Emma-Claire Wilson

Gentle, poignant and often witty ... A beautifully written and intelligent novel about working out who and what really matters Susan Elliot Wright

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What if halfway through your life was just the beginning?

Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life.

Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof.

With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin.

And he’s hiding even more from her...

For fans of Hazel Prior, Rachel Joyce and Jonas Jonasson

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Compassionate and insightful ... the whole novel is imbued with warmth and humour Gill Paul

A funny, heart-warming and unpredictable story of old friendships, new connections and fresh perspectives. I laughed, cried, and loved every minute of the ride with Robin Penny Haw

A supremely entertaining novel about the surprises and cruelties life can have in store, peopled with characters who never feel less than real Polis Loizou

Heartfelt, heartbreaking but also joyful ... a master storyteller Awais Khan

Praise for Katie Allen

Heart-wrenching, warm and funny Guardian

Emotionally engaging, witty, clever and wonderfully satisfying Daily Express

Simultaneously devastating and hilarious Clare Allan

Heartbreaking, deeply moving and wonderfully witty Isabelle Broom

Darkly funny, yet poignant and moving Anna Bell

The writing reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant Becky Fleetwood

The perfect mix of clever, funny and intensely moving Cari Rosen

Everything Happens for a Reason is Katie’s first novel. She used to be a journalist and columnist at the Guardian and Observer, and started her career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London. The events in Everything Happens for a Reason are fiction, but the premise is loosely autobiographical. Katie’s son, Finn, was stillborn in 2010, and her character’s experience of grief and being on maternity leave without a baby is based on her own. And yes, someone did say to her ’Everything happens for a reason’.