Joff Winterhart

Sue, 52, works in a library. Daniel, 15, is still at school. This was the summer holidays Daniel was due to spend with his father and his father's pregnant new wife in Florida. When they cancel his trip, Sue and Daniel face six long weeks together.

Days of the Bagnold Summer

Sam is 27 and needs to get a job. Keith, who claims to be a second cousin of his (absent) father, offers him one. On Keith’s card it says he does ‘distribution and delivery’, which seems to consist of ‘a lot of driving around, getting out of the car for a few minutes and then getting back in’, Sam tells his mother. And so the days go by, Keith driving to a trading estate, ducking into a portakabin, all the while telling Sam stories about his first boss, Geoff Crozier, his mentor in distribution and delivery. As the weeks pass, Sam gets to know Keith’s friends, flirty Hazel-Claire from whom they buy two pasties every day at lunchtime, a variety of receptionists, and a few tantalising secrets from Keith’s past... As in Days of the Bagnold Summer, Joff Winterhart is a master at depicting ordinary life in all its utterly poignant and funny mundanity.

Driving Short Distances

Collecting the first two graphic novels from “one of the most talented graphic novelists in the UK” (Zadie Smith), Other People brings Joff Winterhart and his penchant for endearing, peculiar couples to the US for the first time. Evocatively wrought and gorgeously illustrated, Other People collects Days of the Bagnold Summer and Driving Short Distances, first published in the UK to wide acclaim. In Bagnold Summer—which The Observer proclaimed “graphic novel of the year,” and which received a Costa Award nomination for best novel—a teenager spends a long summer with his mother, much to his disappointment. Capturing the dynamics of family and growing up, Winterhart captures the ennui, pathos, and affection of the mother-son relationship. In Driving Short Distances—which Zadie Smith declared “created an unforgettable central player, Keith Nutt, who deserves to join Keith Talent in the short but potent list of great British literary Keiths; he is an unforgettable character, beautifully drawn and exquisitely written”—Sam needs a job and purpose, so begins a apprenticeship of sorts in the passenger side of Keith’s car. As Sam learns something about the self-styled big-man Keith, and the humility of everyday living, Winterhat’s pen turns ordinary life into a tableau poignant and comedic.

Days of the Bagnold Summer & Driving Short Distances

Other People

Cet été-là avait très mal commencé pour Daniel Bagnold, un jeune anglais de 15 ans. Au lieu d’aller passer ses vacances en Floride avec son père qu’il ne voit jamais, Daniel se retrouve coincé pour tout l’été avec sa mère Sue ; le cauchemar absolu pour cet ado peu habitué à passer des journées entières en tête à tête avec sa progénitrice. Les six semaines de congés vont s’écouler au rythme lent des parties de jeux vidéos, des discussions sans fin de Daniel avec son pote Kyle, et de ses tentatives de monter un groupe de Hard-Rock poétiquement nommé SkullSlayer (massacreur de crânes). Sue, 52 ans et bibliothécaire, est confrontée à la difficulté de communiquer avec son fils amorphe. Elle se remémore ses échecs successifs avec les hommes de sa vie : son père, GI américain retourné aux États-Unis quand elle avait sept ans, son « presque » petit ami du lycée mort dans un accident de mobylette, et son mari qui l’a quittée, la laissant seule avec leur fils encore bébé... Joff Winterhart décompose L’été des Bagnold en une suite de saynètes douces amères, souvent hilarantes, mais parfois empreintes de mélancolie. Il dresse le portrait remarquablement juste d’un ado et d’une mère célibataire, à la fois proches et terriblement embarrassés dans leur rapports.

Joff Winterhart

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