Love in Idleness

Anna stands in the doorway, waiting.  There Stella sits, legs drawn up beneath her on the sofa, a cigarette wanly smoking between her fingers.  She smiles at Anna, eyes almost closed, and pats the sofa beside her.
  ‘So. How lovely.  Just us two together.’

Love in Idleness [2001] is set in London, where Anna, its young protagonist, has always wanted to live.  But she knows no one there except Stella, her mother’s excitingly reckless younger sister, and soon Anna’s loneliness begins to fester.  Is it wise to be thinking quite so much about Stella?  And what, exactly, does Stella want?

Reviews

‘A strange, stealthy, headily scented seethe of a book’
Ali Smith, Glasgow Herald

‘I loved it. The evocation of ennui and loneliness rings very true…great unexpected observations…very funny’
Lesley Glaister

‘An elegant and assured debut, both a neat comedy of London manners and a poignant journey to self-discovery’
Michael Arditti, Daily Mail

‘Funny, fresh and truthful, this is a wonderfully entertaining novel’
Kate Saunders

‘With her gift for light humour, Mendelson seems to be skipping across the surface. Then she’ll suddenly dive into a world of obsession’
Independent on Sunday