Noah's Ark

Ali Bobrow is an other-worldly single parent with a fraught nine-year-old daughter, a malevolent 'ex' with a grabby new wife, and an underused artistic talent. A pushover when it comes to needy neighbours and uninvited children, she allows her house to be the local drop-in centre, until she collides with Noah Glazer, who falls for her pale red hair. A solid man of science, Noah walks into her over-populated life bringing good sense, order and security. But ten years on, Ali is drawn back into the complexities of her past: an old lover, two ex-spouses, a colleague from clown school and a small smuggled cat all help to rock the boat.

Barbara Trapido is the author of seven novels including Brother of the More Famous Jack (winner of a Whitbread special prize for fiction), Temples of Delight (shortlisted for the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award), The Travelling Horn Player, and, most recently, Frankie and Stankie (shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize). She lives in Oxford.