I am delighted to announce that my well-received novel Knowing Women, recounting the travails of Laurence J Benbo, is now an audio book beautifully narrated by Karl Haycock.
Laurence J Benbo is a thirty seven year old graphic artist and Dublin bachelor, awkward with women and lonely after the breakup with his girlfriend Deborah. He meets Jadwiga, a lapdancer and, after winning a lottery, he bestows gifts on her. But his upwardly mobile brother Maoilíosa and his scheming wife Ena, on hearing of his win, try to blackmail the innocent Laurence into handing his money over to them by alleging that he interfered with their daughter Lydia. Laurence seeks out Jadwiga for advice in her lapdancing club. To his dismay, he sees her going into a room with Maoilíosa. He spends the night awake listening to the rain pattering at his window, thinking of Deborah and he imagines little Lydia coming to seek out her uncle Lar to finish the story he had started reading to her. As the rain gets heavier he knows there is going to be a storm.
A vulnerable bachelor is blackmailed sexually. ‘Knowing Women is observationally and psychologically acute. It is also a lot of fun. You knew this middle aged graphics artist with an Eastern European bisexual lap dancer girl friend was headed for trouble and I enjoyed observing his tribulations.’ Mel Ulm, The Reading Life ‘Treats the ultra-ordinary with a surgeon’s forceps,’ Sunday Independent
Review by Anita Kearney in Goodreads:
James Lawless has created a character that could be any middle-aged lonely man or woman in any city in any country. The loneliness of Benbo is almost palatable. His voyeuristic view of life is both amusing and disturbing. This is the story of a man who is desperate for a connection with someone, anyone but also afraid to allow that connection to be made. The book is a testament to the idea of being alone even though you are surround by and are interacting with others. The story is one that is old as time but with a new twist that keeps you turning the page to find out when it will all go wrong and when it does how will Benbo react. You are not disappointed as the story moves along at a good clip to reach a climax that is not quite what you would expect. All in all it is a fine read, I highly recommend it for a rainy day.
5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing Women
Available on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon Audio links for Knowing Women here where you can listen to a sample or buy the book:
https://amzn.to/3ugo2KS UK or https://amzn.to/2Y66O7o USA.
Knowing Women is also translated into Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
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