I Am Sovereign

'One of the funniest, most finely achieved comic novels, even by her own standard ... I think it's a masterpiece .' ALI SMITH 'I think Nicola Barker is incapable of a dull page. [Her work] is unified by its spirit of adventure.' KEVIN BARRY How long does it take to change the world? Could it happen in approximately twenty minutes? Charles, a forty-year-old teddy bear maker, is trying to sell his late mother's house, helped by his estate agent Avigail (who thinks Charles is an imbecile). The prospective buyers: the fearsome Wang Shu - who has no desire to make idle chit-chat - and her downtrodden daughter, Ying Yue. During the twenty-minute viewing a huge number of things happen, although it is also entirely possible that nothing happens at all. Which is it? Can the world really turn on its axis during a mundane discussion about cheese preservation? Has fiction the power to do that? Should it even want to? ' She really is a genius.' GUARDIAN 'Life-affirming hilarity - Evelyn Waugh on ec