Mimi - Softcover

YES! I'm throwing all my woolly winter berets in the air for Mimi! Only Lucy at her best is able, somehow, to rap on in a manner that binds together Bugs Bunny and Wagner, Haydn and hunchbacks. (Barbara Trapido)

I am bowled over by Mimi (Susannah Clapp)

Neurotic, crazy, and fun, with a love story, too (Vogue)

Funny, angry, sarcastic and utterly individual, Ellmann has been described as "one of modern literarture's most well-kept secrets" (Alison Flood Observer)

Lucy Ellman has fashioned a quirkily distinctive voice mixing righteous rage with laugh-out-loud humour. Mimi finds her on top form, couching in whimsical wit a provocative riff on romance and feminism, explored unusually from a male perspective ... It's all flighty enough to make a Wes Anderson film look like gritty realism (Malcolm Jack List)

This breakneck fable of love and loss has an energy that captivates ... A true original, a love story with lashings of horror and a whimsical tour de force. It might leave you exasperated or exhausted but will certainly make you think ... Ellmann's writing is fearless in its experimentation: a whistle-stop tour of the paraphernalia that litters all our minds. Oddments that most of us notice and discard are here burnished into literary devices ... Mimi is at its best when Ellmann uses her innovative style and light touch to highlight society's darkest truths (Alice Fishburn Financial Times)

A modern love story that packs a punch. This is the ultimate love story of our age ... The antithesis of all the clichéd romances of contemporary novels and films ... A feminist text disguised as a page-turning novel ... Fans of Caitlin Moran will find the Valentine's Day chapter in particular a real distillation of feminism for our time, perfectly masquerading as a story that will have you laughing at every other page ... Some beautiful and original writing. Mimi doesn't just set out ideals, it also offers great advice and terrific phrases ... Ellmann's first book in six years is a triumph for feminism, and deserves to become a classic (Emma Herdman Psychologies)

Her extraordinary new novel which is, amongst many things, a love letter to New York (Chitra Ramaswamy Scotsman)

So much of the charm of Ellmann's eccentric take on the world lies in the common ground it makes with the equally frustrated reader; who among us, after all, hasn't vainly yearned to love and be loved? (Laura Miller Guardian)

A dark-hued but uplifting tale leads to a life beyond the cult of cosmetic enchantment ... Ellmann's vivid intelligence ... Mimi is more focused: it has a trajectory, it has a thesis, it has a hero ... Mimi is ringing with love and rage and hope. Ellmann's best sentences are so springy and rhythmic, they make you think of a Slinky coursing down the sweet spot of a stair-case, happy as Larry (Susie Boyt Independent)