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  • Published: 4 August 2020
  • ISBN: 9781784164164
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $24.00

Life and other Happy Endings

A hopeful, laugh-out-loud read for 2021




'Brilliantly funny and thought-provoking' (Rosie Walsh). The ultimate feelgood fiction which asks big questions: If your life was going to end tomorrow, what would you do today?

'Brilliantly funny and thought-provoking - an absolute joy' Rosie Walsh, author of The Man Who Didn't Call

'I LOVE this book! It is full of heart and hope' Cathy Kelly Cathy Kelly
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Three letters. Two mistakes. One Last chance.
When Jennifer Cole is told she has three months to live she decides to write three letters sharing the desires, fears and frustrations she has always kept to herself. And at first she finds that telling the truth makes her feel free and liberated.

But three months later, Jennifer's secrets are alive and out in the world . . . and so is she. As she discovers, sometimes the truth has a way of surprising you . . .
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Readers are falling in love with Life & Other Happy Endings!

***** 'Incredibly funny and immensely moving.'
***** 'I couldn't put this book down. Witty, touching and uplifting with a plot full of twists and turns.'
***** 'This book was like a breath of fresh air from start to finish.'
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Life & Other Happy Endings was previously published as Death & Other Happy Endings

  • Published: 4 August 2020
  • ISBN: 9781784164164
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $24.00

About the author

Melanie Cantor

Melanie Cantor was a celebrity agent and publicist for over thirty years. Her clients included Ulrika Jonsson, Melinda Messenger and Melanie Sykes. In 2004, she hosted a makeover show on Channel 4 called Making Space and in 2017 having just turned 60 she was scouted on Kings Cross station, subsequently appearing as a 'real model' in the most recent Dove campaign. She turned her hand to writing in 2008. Death and other Happy Endings is her first published novel.

Also by Melanie Cantor

See all

Praise for Life and other Happy Endings

I LOVE this book! It is full of heart and hope.

Cathy Kelly

This novel is going to provoke the most brilliant conversations around the water coolers!

Badass Women, Talk Radio

Brilliantly funny and thought-provoking--an absolute joy.

Rosie Walsh

Without doubt Melanie Cantor’s Death and Other Happy Endings should be at the top of your summer reading list. This book is full of life and hope...A rollicking page turner.

Melanie Sykes, BEST Recommended Summer Reads

Quirky, funny and hugely readable, this is a story about the power of friendship and sisterhood, as well as love and loss.

Fabulous

Filled with warmth and wit. Will make you want to throw on your saved-for-best dress and live your own life to the fullest

Heat

A book to cancel plans for - you won't want to put it down

Closer

Cantor strikes plenty of witty, hopeful notes

Mail on Sunday

Witty and well-crafted

Sunday Mirror

Reminds us to live life with no limits

Good Housekeeping

A spirited feel-good story that made me smile, and think

Fanny Blake

Truly uplifting and joyful.

Prima

Totally wonderful: Funny and heart-warming and insightful about relationships and how people operate. Everybody’s going to be reading it this summer.

Melanie Sykes

Written with energy and sparkle, it is such a clever idea which makes you think.

Elizabeth Buchan

Bursting with heart and charm, Cantor serves up a wonderfully warm take on love, loss, and second chances

Hannah Orenstein, author of Playing with Matches

I LOVE this book! I read it at high speed. How brilliant to read about a grown-up who is also funny and makes mistakes, in a novel that is full of heart and hope without any stupid bucket lists.

Cathy Kelly

A spirited feel-good story that made me smile, and think. .

Fanny Blake

Brilliantly funny and thought-provoking--an absolute joy.

Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted and The Man Who Didn't Call

Witty, very touching and entirely unexpected

Jenny Colgan

A brisk, witty tale of saving your life by finding your voice.

Kirkus

[An] accomplished debut….Twists push the story in intriguing directions, and the clever, personable voice of Jennifer is like that of a witty friend with a bad news/good news story to tell, resulting in a moving novel with a surprisingly playful edge.

Publishers Weekly

This novel is going to provoke the most brilliant conversations around the water coolers!

Badass Women, Talk Radio

Without doubt Melanie Cantor’s Death and Other Happy Endings should be at the top of your summer reading list. This book is full of life and hope...A rollicking page turner, it will stay with you long after you’ve closed its beautifully designed covers.

Melanie Sykes, BEST: Recommended Summer Reads

Witty and well-crafted.

Sunday Mirror

Engaging heroine! ... There's plenty of drama in Melanie Cantor's debut, which reminds us to live life with no limits.

Good Housekeeping

A book to cancel plans for – you won’t want to put it down.

Closer

Filled with warmth and wit. Will make you want to throw on your saved-for-best dress and live your own life to the fullest

Lisa Howells, Heat

Cantor strikes plenty of witty, hopeful notes

MAIL ON SUNDAY HOT 100 SUMMER BOOKS

So readable - Melanie brings such humour to a usually tragic subject. It gallops along!

Jo Good