The sad truth about happiness

Maggie, the 31-year-old middle child who is just a little too predictable, is ready for change. Her roommate Rebecca devises questionnaires for women's magazines, and she is convinced her newest one can predict the exact date of death of anyone who answers the questions honestly. Rebecca, they learn, is going to live to a healthy old age. When Maggie fills it in she is puzzled to discover that she'll live to be 132 years old, until she realises that the test is telling her she actually has only 132 days more. The fact that she has answered the 'are you happy' question with a 'no' appears to have shaved decades off her life, and she resolves to live differently; if she can become happy in her three remaining months, perhaps she can wrest her fate free of the prediction. But trying to protect her younger sister Lucy from the attentions of a spurned boyfriend, Maggie finds herself on the run with Lucy's newborn child. And this is only the beginning of her problems!

Year

2006

Language

English

Publisher

Harper Perennial

Editions

8

Pages

278

ISBN

9780007196708

Data source: Wikidata