Things I Need You to Know

by Mark Lamprell

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Pub Date 4 Jun 2024 | Archive Date 1 Jun 2024

General Fiction (Adult)

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Description

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone...

Birdie McBride seems to have it all: a fulfilling and lucrative job, five healthy daughters and a doting husband, Ned, at home keeping the family machine running smoothly.

But then Ned dies. He leaves behind a document for Birdie—‘Things I Need You to Know’—full of guidance on everything from household maintenance to the intimate details of each daughter’s emotional landscape. Composed in his dying days, it’s his last act of fatherly devotion. Reading Ned’s manual, Birdie falls for her husband in a way she never did when he was alive. Yet the presence of his best friend, Marcello, complicates things. As well as having been Ned’s doctor, Marcello is Birdie’s ex-lover—though not as ‘ex’ as most people would think. And his feelings for Birdie are as strong as ever.

When more calamities rock her family, Birdie starts to wonder: how much trust can you put in feelings? And in old friends? Can the legacy of ‘Things I Need You to Know’ save her family from the catastrophic end barrelling towards them?

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone...

Birdie McBride seems to have it all: a fulfilling and lucrative job, five healthy daughters and a doting husband, Ned, at home keeping the family...

Advance Praise

‘The entire cast of Things I Need You to Know are complex, rich, infuriating and absorbing characters. Yet the real masterwork here is the abiding presence of Ned, even after his death. Even in the midst of a novel full of twists and unexpected turns there is no-one quite like Mark Lamprell for evoking love, tenderness and that slippery quality of goodness. Ned’s profound love for his family, and Birdie’s belated understanding of who he was create a heart-stirring beyond-death centre for this utterly gripping novel. I couldn’t stop reading—and by the end, everything I thought I knew had been proven wrong.’—Kathryn Heyman, bestselling author of Fury