Stealing Dad
On sale
8th May 2025
Price: £20
‘Funny, sad and beautifully written’ Telegraph
‘I was completely absorbed from the beginning’ Mary Portas
‘A brilliant depiction of a complex sprawling family with a charismatic lovable rogue at its centre. It is both tragic and funny, but ultimately heartwarming’ Lily Dunn
What do you do when you’re not allowed to attend your father’s funeral?
This is the question facing Alekos’s far-flung children from many marriages when the successful, if controversial, Greek sculptor dies in London. His last wife and now widow is determined that they stay away, but for the first time, all the sisters and brothers meet up and plan to take matters into their own hands.
Wonderfully written and sharply funny, Stealing Dad tells the unlikely story of a dysfunctional family coming together in tragic yet hilarious ways, from acclaimed author of Putney, Sofka Zinovieff.
‘I was completely absorbed from the beginning’ Mary Portas
‘A brilliant depiction of a complex sprawling family with a charismatic lovable rogue at its centre. It is both tragic and funny, but ultimately heartwarming’ Lily Dunn
What do you do when you’re not allowed to attend your father’s funeral?
This is the question facing Alekos’s far-flung children from many marriages when the successful, if controversial, Greek sculptor dies in London. His last wife and now widow is determined that they stay away, but for the first time, all the sisters and brothers meet up and plan to take matters into their own hands.
Wonderfully written and sharply funny, Stealing Dad tells the unlikely story of a dysfunctional family coming together in tragic yet hilarious ways, from acclaimed author of Putney, Sofka Zinovieff.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
Funny, sad and beautifully written. It will make you appreciate your own family, and wish, perhaps, that you too had an assortment of semi siblings with whom you could take some magic mushrooms, filch a corpse and go on an adventure... A first-class novel starring a dysfunctional family like no other
[Sofka Zinovieff] has an enviable gift for story-telling and character creation. I thought Stealing Dad was a wonderful combination of hilariously improbable and believably sad. A romp - but also a reminder of human fallibility and mortality
Part grief-memoir and part macabre escapade... the writing is fresh [and] sensuous... the author weaves in some valuable ideas [such as] how selfish parenting can pass on 'destructive impulses'
Any novel about a large Bohemian family is fascinating, and Sofka Zinovieff's Stealing Dad is no exception. A black comedy about bereavement, rivalries, anger and finding peace it shares with her admired Putney an elegance and intelligence that make it a rewarding read
A glorious read
I was completely absorbed from the beginning. Stealing Dad captures the darkness of a bereaved, divided family and takes it on a sometimes hilarious joy-ride into the light
Stealing Dad contributes to a vital and much-needed conversation about grief and funerals. A novel that scrutinises some of our most raw emotions with honesty and humour
Moving, funny and unexpectedly joyful, I became immersed in the tangled skeins of this unwieldy family coming to terms with their loss
I laughed and cried reading Stealing Dad. A brilliant depiction of a complex sprawling family with a charismatic lovable rogue at its centre. It is both tragic and funny, but ultimately heartwarming, brought alive by such beautiful descriptive writing of characterisation and place. I loved this book and didn't want it to end