Joel & Cat Set the Story Straight, Nick Earls & Rebecca Sparrow

Elizabeth brushes her hair again.
Then nothing happens for about a hundred years in this goddamn story, though it feels like a million and a half, while the reader gets bored and dies and the reader's children get bored and die and dozens of wars come and go and people live on Mars now if they want to and...

A novel told in alternating girl/boy chapters (Nick writes as Joel, Rebecca as Cat). Cat and Joel hate each other – largely because of an event that we very soon realise has probably been misunderstood by both parties. Thrown together to do a tandem writing assignment, they snipe and attack each other through their joint story. Despite their animosity, they find themselves uniting against a common goal – Cat’s dad and Joel’s mum are dating! Hilarious and fast paced, Earls and Sparrow are a writing match made in heaven.

Joel & Cat Set the Story Straight is longlisted for the Golden Inky.