The Friday Gospels

At the beginning of The Friday Gospels, five members of a northern English family are separated by physical and emotional distance. They're isolated, they feel trapped, and they're looking for home or escape from it. By the end, four are squashed together, laughing, in the family bathroom, and even the black sheep is a winner.

Ashworth tells her tale of one day in the life of this Mormon family with wit. Martin, the dad, is so needy he misinterprets the friendliness a young, attractive woman shows him on early morning dog-walks. He plans escape from the humdrum, but that's never going to happen.

Mum Pauline believes her life to be permanently circumscribed by an ugly health condition. As a result, she's fervent in her adulation of her son Gary, who's been serving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as a missionary. Now he's on his way home from Salt Lake City, she plans a huge home-coming party for him.

Delayed by volcanic ash, Gary has time to wallow in disappointment and failure. When he eventually reaches home, it's to a series of ungodly crises that break yet make the family. Gradually, each finds some kind of release. Their problems are real, but Ashworth presents her characters and their imperfections with tender, thoughtful, and entertaining irony.