ABOUT
THE BOOK

The Birthday Lunch is the story of one pivotal week in the life of a family facing a tragic loss, rich with dramatic tension and beautifully rendered.

Free-spirited Lily has always played the peacemaker between her fierce, doting sister, Laverne, and her own loving, garrulous husband, Hal, as they competed for her attention. The competition has only grown worse since the three of them moved into a large house in the town of Sussex, New Brunswick. On Lily’s 58th birthday, a steamy day in late June, Laverne feels she has bested Hal by winning her sister’s company for a gourmet lunch, but it becomes a bitter and short-lived victory when the day’s events take an unexpected and tragic turn.

In The Birthday Lunch, Joan Clark explores the different ways each member of Lily’s family confronts her shocking death: Hal’s open sorrow, her daughter Claudia’s reappraisal of her own life, her son Matt’s determination to assign blame. And unforgettably, Laverne’s eccentricity and isolation, her intensifying conflict with Hal, illuminates the brutal territory of accusation and regret.

In this “quietly explosive” (Emma Healey, author) novel, Clark paints a positive, incisive picture of vibrant small town life as the backdrop for this family drama, which explores various ways of confronting death. This carefully structured novel describes the pitfalls of family dynamics and how they can reach a bittersweet equilibrium. Clark’s writing is richly textured and emotionally authentic, producing a powerful sense of place and realistic dialogue which move the story forward.