Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [0]
LAST CHANCE SALOON
‘One of the most successful writers of contemporary fiction’ Daily Express
‘Snappy writing and Keyes’ sharp eye for the absurdities of life make cracking entertainment’ Woman & Home
‘Keyes is a rare writer in the popular fiction genre in that most of her characters are as strong as her plot lines and the dialogue sparkles and rings true’ Irish Times
‘She is a talented comic writer… laden with plot, twists, jokey asides and nicely turned bits of zeitgeisty observational humour… energetic, well-constructed prose delivers life and people in satisfying shades of grey’ Guardian
‘(She) gives popular fiction a good name, no easy feat in a field dominated by overpaid imitators and charlatans’ Independent on Sunday
‘Keyes has a gift for zippy prose which means reading her is like delving into a delicious souffle’ Image
‘Keyes has taken over Binchy’s crown as the Queen of Irish Fiction. [She] is a superior storyteller who seamlessly combines style and substance, humour and pathos, and thoroughly deserves her bestselling status’ Irish Independent
‘Her writing sparkles and the world is a better place for her books’ Irish Tatler
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marian Keyes is the international bestselling author of Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel’s Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, Angels, and most recently The Other Side of the Story, a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller. She is published in twenty-nine different languages. A collection of her journalism, called Under the Duvet, is also available in Penguin. Marian lives in Dublin with her husband.
LAST CHANCE
SALOON
Marian Keyes
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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www.penguin.com
Published by Michael Joseph 1999
Published in Penguin Books 2000
53
Copyright © Marian Keyes, 1999
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 978-0-14-190982-0
For Kate
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision:
But today well lived
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
SANSKRIT PROVERB
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all at Michael Joseph and Penguin. Especial thanks to my editor Louise Moore, for her vision, enthusiasm, praise, friendship and meticulous, tenacious, painstaking editing.
Thanks to everyone at Poolbeg for their hard work, support and endorsement. I must make special mention of editor Gaye Shortland’s guidance.
Thanks to my agent Jonathan Lloyd and all at Curtis Brown.
Thanks to the ‘hardcore’ who’ve stuck with me since the first book and who read this book as I wrote it, and who with their suggestions, comments and encouragement persuaded me to continue – Jenny