Mimi

It's Christmas Eve in Manhattan. Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good. 'Ya can't sit there all day, buddy, looking up people's skirts!' chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi! She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi. Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life's work, a List of Melancholy Things (Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests...). But when he receives a dreaded invitation to address his old school, Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos. She and Harrison fall emphatically in love. And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air. Bolshy, life-affirming, feminist and energetic. It makes you long to chuck your job, gulp oysters and run naked through the surf Sunday Telegraph A wildly hilarious, modern film noir in fiction form Sunday Telegraph A true original Financial Times Neurotic, crazy and fun, with a love story, too Vogue A call to arms that is light-hearted and playful but also practical . Almost as much a tract of female wish fulfilment as Fifty Shades of Grey Literary Review Mimi is ringing with love and rage and hope. Ellmann's best sentences are so springy and rhythmic, they make you think of a Slinky coursing down the sweet spot of a staircase, happy as Larry Independent Funny, angry, sarcastic and utterly individual Observer Feels like Woody Allen reading Dr Seuss . The writing is exquisite and it has a cinematic momentum and enviable self-belief that sweeps you up and carries you along . I loved every minute Sunday Telegraph