Something to Live For

The story Roper tells is a charming, humorous and life-affirming tale about human kindness that strikes a chord in a world where loneliness is a growing problem. -- Rebecca Thomas * BBC NEWS ONLINE, Best Fiction of 2019 * If you loved Eleanor Oliphant, try this brilliant new read... We completely fell in love with this funny, uplifting debut. -- Claire Frost * FABULOUS * I loved this novel with my whole heart. * THE NEW YORK TIMES * Endearing and delightful. -- Nina Pottell * PRIMA * This perfect, quirky summer page-turner... a life-affirming debut. -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * SUNDAY TIMES STYLE * This is a story that gets under your skin - and a must read. -- Natasha Harding * THE SUN * A wonderful debut that's heartbreaking, uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny... an inspiring, life-affirming read. -- Zoe West * WOMAN'S WEEKLY * Something To Live For is a heart-warming, funny yet poignant debut novel. Exploring loneliness and family breakdown, Richard Roper has created a cast of colourful and weirdly wonderful characters. An uplifting and life-affirming read. -- Anne Cater * DAILY EXPRESS * Eleanor Oliphant for men -- David Sexton * EVENING STANDARD * This could almost be the tie-in novel for a Richard Curtis romcom... Something To Live For benefits from the same earnest charm. -- Thomas Barrie * GQ * Richard Roper's debut is heart-breaking, uplifting, funny and brimming with human kindness. * SUNDAY HERALD * It's no surprise that TV rights to this funny, tender and all-the-feels book have already been snapped up. -- Sarra Manning * RED * A wonderful debut that's heartbreaking, uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny all at once. * WOMAN'S OWN * A sweetly poignant debut. -- Eithne Farry * SUNDAY EXPRESS S MAGAZINE * A poignant but uplifting novel that's related with great compassion and humour. -- Fanny Blake * DAILY MAIL * Endearing. -- Patricia Nicol * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * A poignant, superbly funny debut novel about love, loneliness and the many ways life doesn't always go to plan. * WATERSTONES * Funny, moving and thought-provoking - I loved this. * Clare Mackintosh * Tender, funny, compelling - this wonderful book deserves to be huge! -- Lucy Foley, author of THE HUNTING PARTY Like everyone else, I completely fell under its spell. It pulls you in, makes you laugh and breaks your heart - in short, does everything that you want a novel to do. Every character is round and real - from dear old Andrew, through the wonderful Peggy - oh, Peggy! - to the anonymous woman in the cloud of perfume who lives downstairs. While it is very much in the David Nicholls' tradition of sympathetic quirk and comedy, it is, at the same time, so fresh and different. I loved the voice, the people, the world..... Who couldn't? What an extraordinary debut. * Gill Hornby * Just finished Something To Live For with tears running down my cheeks. Heart-breaking. Hilarious. Life-affirming. Some descriptions of loneliness took my breath away. This book deserves to be HUGE. * Holly Bourne * Warmed my heart, broke it a little, then put it back together -- Beth O'Leary, bestselling author of the THE FLATSHARE Nick Hornby and David Nicholls' quirky love child would write like Richard Roper. Something to Live For is endearing, funny and life-affirming, with a perfect dose of loneliness and human kindness -- Caroline Smailes Funny, moving and uplifting... I loved it. * Libby Page, author of THE LIDO * Wryly funny and quirkily charming - perfect for fans of A Man Called Ove and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine * Eleanor Brown, author of The Weird Sisters * A definite contender for my book of the year . . . funny, heartbreaking and cleverly observed -- Claire Frost A life-affirming novel that simultaneously tweaks your funny-bone and tugs at your heartstrings. Brilliant! -- Matt Dunn [An] off-beat and winning debut..., [Something To Live For] earns its pathos. Even more to its credit, it gives resiliency and

Richard Roper was inspired by an article he read about the council workers who deal with situations when someone dies alone. Their days are spent sifting through the ephemera of those who've slipped through the cracks, searching for clues to a next of kin. Council workers are under no obligation to attend the funerals. Yet they do, sometimes dozens of them a year, just to make sure at least someone is there. Richard Roper lives in London. SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR is his first novel.