'A comedy with the warmest of hearts and the most deliciously subversive of agendas' - Marie Claire'Fast-paced and engaging. Picador, 2008 - Family secrets - 324 pages. When We Were Bad is a spellbinding, witty and poignant portrayal of a family in crisis, in love, and in denial.

And Claudia's husband, Norman, has an uncharacteristic secret, the imminent unveiling of which he is powerless to stop. Her third, When We Were Bad (2007), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for. In a marvelously compressed style that also bursts with life, she reveals how all four adult Rubin children, and their parents, struggle with huge secrets, sexual frustration and sexual experimentation, and many betrayals.Charlotte Mendelson opens a window on a realm rarely explored in British society: the complicated world of English Jewry. Frances - Claudia's calm, mature, married daughter - tries to hold the nucleus of the family together, but the stress forces her to re-examine her own life, leading her to make a decision as shocking as Leo's. An extraordinary new novel from acclaimed author Charlotte Mendelson.

That is until Leo bolts and the gleaming bubble surrounding the Rubins threatens to burst. Charlotte Mendelson has written five novels, including Love in Idleness, Daughters of Jerusalem, When We Were Bad, Almost English and The Exhibitionist. Wife, mother, rabbi - and sometimes moral voice of the nation - everyone wants to be with her at her son Leo's glorious wedding. A beautifully observed literary comedy as well as a painfully accurate description of one big old family mess.Ī joy' - ObserverIn North London, Claudia Rubin is in her heyday.

When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson