Single Mother on the Verge by Maria Roberts. Published by Penguin on 2nd July @ £6.99.

Having lost her early twenties to an abusive relationship, Maria has had a complicated and gritty life, but the humour with which she recounts her life brings to the book a Shameless-like quality that will delight readers.

Maria is twenty-nine years old. She is a grammar school, university educated single mother and lives on a council estate in Manchester. She’s also a chronic day-dreamer. One day she’d like to marry a beautiful man with a huge income to look after her and Jack, her nine-year-old-son. The only problem is that her current boyfriend, Rhodri, a chickpea-loving vegan eco-warrior, has turned his back on career ladders. Neither does he believe in monogamy. And so Maria finds herself unexpectedly juggling one, two, three lovers…

When Damien, Jack’s abusive father, who threatened to kill Maria more times than she cares to remember, makes an unwelcome reappearance, she gets a wake-up call. Will Maria find a wonderful father figure for Jack by the time she turns thirty?

Maria Roberts is an original and fresh voice, and the sheer strength and texture of her observation – by turns wry and brutally honest, amused and despairing – won her the Manchester Literature Festival’s Best Personal Blog Award.

While dealing with serious and difficult issues of domestic violence, single parenthood, and struggling to survive on a low income on a tough estate in Manchester, Maria makes it clear that these things don’t necessarily turn one into a victim – women have a sense of humour about these things, and are ultimately resourceful. Tough times are part of the texture of life.

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