A Sleeping success

The Sleeping Father by Matthew Sharpe (Sceptre, £12.99)

Turned down by a score of publishers in America, this quirky, clever novel was eventually picked up by a small independent firm who paid the author the meagre sum of $1,000 (all they could afford) and set about telling everyone how great the book was.

Almost immediately, it garnered rave reviews and was optioned by Warner Brothers. The novel is now generating the kind of buzz that made The Lovely Bones and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time word-of-mouth bestsellers.

Sharpe's territory is family life, and he sets about mapping its confusing contours with an ironic yet friendly gaze. The family in question are the Schwartzes. Son Chris is a wisecracking teen befuddled by hormones, daughter Cathy is in the midst of a religious crisis.

Their mother has left home to sell real estate on the other side of the country, leaving the children in the care of their father: gentle, sad, depressed Bernard.

After a medication mix-up, Bernard falls into a coma and suddenly the children have to learn to care for him. It's a heart-breaking scenario, but Sharpe refuses to allow sentimentality into the drama; instead, he relies for emotional impact on the eccentric resilience of the Schwartzes.