Everyone hates the perfect family; so everyone should love the aptly-named Battles. Mo is a child psychologist, who doesn't understand her own children: Dora nearly 18 can't wait to escape to university, and then there's brother Peter, who has an Oscar Wilde fixation. Dad is just, well, dad. Dawn French's debut novel is the story of a modern family all living in their own separate bubbles and lurching towards meltdown.