The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler: Brilliant, funny, sad and sensitive.

Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts. Till he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular worl. And thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.

This is a warm, wise, funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-affirming book. In Macon Leary, the man who writes travel books for people who hate to travel, Tyler has created an amazing character. His damaged psyche, his vulnerability, the gradual changes in his character and outlook as he starts to connect with the messiness of living leap off the page. This book makes laugh out loud one moment and brings tears to eyes the next. Although Macon is the centre of the novel, the supporting characters are also wonderful creations. There’s Muriel – vulnerable and needy, but alive and connected to others. There’s Macon’s fabulously eccentric siblings, his boss Julian, his wife Sarah and even his dog Edward. Each of them real and memorable.