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Sophie Kinsella, who has died aged 55, had a special talent for characters who struggled with even the most embarrassing tragedies – often of their own making.
Here are five novels that have helped readers laugh and bond over the past 30 years.
“The Tennis Party” (1995)
Fellow writers can only envy Kinsella’s success at how quickly it came and how easy it seems. As the author may recall, she was a 24-year-old financial journalist who one day while traveling by train thought to herself, “I want to try this, I want to write a book.” Within two years, she became the best-selling author of “The Tennis Party” under her real name, Madeleine Wickham.
Released in the US as “40 Love”, her first novel focused on the misadventures of a weekend tennis party and introduced readers to her conversational touch about everything from love to money and… tennis.
“They all have a lot of stuff,” the author explains on her website. “They sleep with each other, they behave very badly, drink a lot of Pimms, throw tennis balls around, and things get quite serious.”
“The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic” (2000)
Before becoming a global brand as “Sophie Kinsella”, she published her first several books as Wickham. Inspired by this first “Shopaholic” novel, millions will admire Becky Bloomwood, a hopelessly indebted financial journalist who helps keep the economy running with her “investments” in clothing, household and other products.
One of her most cherished fantasies in her dream world: that some “sweet old lady” in Cornwall would accidentally get her “huge” credit card bill and pay without checking the name. Meanwhile, Becky will be billed to the woman for three tins of cat food, “which, naturally, I will pay without question.”
Starred in the 2009 film “Confessions of a Shopaholic”, based on the first two of Kinsella’s nine-novel series isla fissure And Hugh Dancy,
“Can you keep a secret?” (2003)
As for Kinsella, the novelist had a mission to get his characters into trouble. Emma Corrigan has a proper job as a marketing assistant and a reasonable and “heartbreakingly handsome” boyfriend. She is also prone to nervousness and distraction, walking around in public with her blouse unbuttoned or spilling soda on a customer’s shirt. And she has some secrets she’d like to keep intact, whether it’s pouring orange juice on a co-worker’s plant that annoys her or how she sometimes holds back her laughter while having sex — “just normal, everyday little secrets.”
The book was adapted into a 2019 film starring Alexandra Daddario and Tyler Hoechlin.
“The Undomesticated Goddess” (2005)
His characters with alliterative names were sometimes fish out of water, sometimes on the driest land. Samantha Sweeting is the one London The lawyer, who can no longer afford it, boards a train for the countryside and finds herself working as a house maid, for which she has no known skills.
The author writes on her website, “I had a lot of fun portraying Samantha’s comedic disasters in the kitchen, her battles with the ironing board, her gradually slowing down and relaxing and finding love.” “It’s the story of a highly professional man who realizes there’s more to life than work and starts appreciating the small things.”
“Twenties Girl” (2009)
Just your typical supernatural adventure, in which 27-year-old Lara Lington is visited by the ghost of her great Aunt Sadie and is sent to retrieve Sadie’s long-lost necklace. The subplot involves Lara being dumped by her boyfriend and Lara wondering if she can succeed in business as a headhunter.
She also lies to her parents a lot. Yes, his work is going well. Yes, he loved his Christmas gift. No, she doesn’t just live on pizza, yogurt and vodka. And so on: “Seven lies. This doesn’t include all the lies about mom’s outfit.”