Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
"Kennedy's prose is lively and assured." --The New York Times Book
Review
A good man in a bad world, Jon Sigurdsson is fifty-nine and divorced, a
senior civil servant in London who hates many of his colleagues and
loathes his work for a government engaged in unmentionable acts.
Meg Williams is a bankrupt accountant--two words you don't want in the
same sentence, or anywhere near your résumé. She's forty-five and
shakily sober, living on Telegraph Hill in London, where she can see the
city unfurl below her.
Somewhere out there is Jon, pinballing around the city with a cell phone
and a letter-writing habit he can't break. He's a man on the brink,
leaking government secrets and affection for a woman he barely knows as
he runs for his life.
Poignant, deeply funny, and beautifully written, Serious Sweet is
about two decent, damaged people trying to make moral choices in an
immoral world, ready to sacrifice what's left of themselves for honesty
and for a chance at tenderness. As Jon and Meg navigate the sweet and
serious heart of London--passing through twenty-four hours that will
change them both forever--they tell an unusual and moving love story.