From internationally bestselling author Kate Long, a perceptive, vivid, and painfully funny novel about family ties and growing upOn the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Katherine wants only three things: a smidge of social grace, the body of Courteney Cox, and two parents. What she has instead is an almost complete lack of friends, a pudgy figure, and one extremely eccentric, nearly blind grandmother named Poll. Since Katherines father died and her mother disappeared, Poll is her only family. And not only does Poll buy all of Katherines clothes, but she forbids her to leave the house unless its absolutely necessary. Would a chance to go to Oxford count? But the bigger question is: How can she abandon her grandma? Just when Katherine has resigned herself to a lifetime of watching daytime television, sparring with Poll, and visiting the town library for fun, along comes a handsome, magnetic young man named Collum, who claims to be Katherines long-lost cousin. But as Katherine is about to learn, when it comes to family, things arent always as they seem. Praise for Kate Longs The Bad Mothers HandbookKate Long manages to brilliantly balance equal parts heartbreak and hilarity in a novel that you will love unconditionally.Sarah Bird, author of The Flamenco AcademyThere is a lovely sweetness to this heartbreaking/heartwarming story.The Seattle TimesFunny, touching and utterly winning.Publishers WeeklyFrom the Trade Paperback edition.