Retired Professor of Lingustics Desmond Bates is going deaf. It's a bother for his wife who has an enviably successful new career and is too busy to be endlessly repeating herself. Roles are reversed with his aging father, who resents his son's attempts to help him. And then there's Alex, a student whom Desmond has agreed to help after a typical misunderstanding at a party. But her increasingly bizarre requests cannot all be blamed on his defective hearing. So much for growing old gracefully...
- ISBN10 0141035706
- ISBN13 9780141035703
- Publish Date 4 June 2009 (first published 1 May 2008)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 320
- Language English