What could be an overwhelmingly grim premise is much sweeter and funnier than it sounds. Telling her the truth would put everything in jeopardy-but it might be the only way he can truly be happy. The problem, of course, is that she thinks he’s a married father. As they sort through apartments, Andrew and Peggy become closer, and for the first time in quite a while, Andrew starts to form a connection with another person. Their job is an unusual one: visiting the apartments of people who died alone, examining their belongings to see if they had next of kin. Andrew thinks it’s just more comfortable to be by himself-but then Peggy starts working at his office. His only friends are members of an online model train forum, and his only relative is a faraway sister with whom he has a strained relationship. It was all a misunderstanding, but now his office thinks he has a loving wife and two children even though Andrew lives alone. It started innocently enough-he misspoke when his boss asked if he had kids, so he made up an entire family to get out of an awkward conversation. This story of a neurotic, tenderhearted man struggling to learn how not to be alone is irresistible.In Roper’s quirky and heartfelt debut, a lonely man learns to step outside the confines of his safe but stifling comfort zone.Īndrew never meant to get caught up in a lie at work. As he grows closer to Peggy, Andrew's social awkwardness adds to his problems: he once finds himself so filled with trepidation about a planned encounter that he spontaneously apologizes after hearing a coworker sneeze. The plot becomes even more complicated for Andrew when he is put in charge of showing the ropes to a new employee, Peggy, a woman he's attracted to but who is married and has two daughters.
Not only do Andrew's annoying boss and two irritating coworkers ask casual, typical questions about his family, it's also decided that there will be dinners sponsored by each employee in his or her home. After he's hired, the lie mushrooms, but he can't find a way to fix it during the following five years at the U.K.'s Death Administration Council, where his responsibilities include inspecting the homes of people who have died alone, and arranging their funerals. Andrew is a 42-year-old single man whose life became complicated by an accidental lie about having a wife and children, told while interviewing for a job. Roper's delightful debut is as funny as it is touching.
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