When We Were Bad cover art

When We Were Bad

the dazzling, Women’s Prize-shortlisted novel from the author of The Exhibitionist

 Preview
Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

When We Were Bad

Written by: Charlotte Mendelson
Narrated by: Anna Cordell
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹323.00

Buy Now for ₹323.00

About this listen

When We Were Bad is a spellbinding, witty and poignant portrayal of a family in crisis, in love, and in denial.

'As intelligent as it is funny. A beautifully observed literary comedy as well as a painfully accurate description of one big old family mess. A joy' – The Observer

In North London, Claudia Rubin is in her heyday. Wife, mother, rabbi – and sometimes moral voice of the nation – everyone wants to be with her at her son Leo's glorious wedding. That is, until Leo jilts his bride, and the gleaming bubble surrounding the Rubins threatens to burst.

Frances – Claudia's calm, mature, married daughter – tries to hold the nucleus of the family together, but the stress forces her to re-examine her own life, leading her to make a decision as shocking as Leo's choice to bolt.

And Claudia's husband, Norman, has an uncharacteristic secret. And, whether he likes it or not, he is powerless to stop it coming out . . .

'A comedy with the warmest of hearts and the most deliciously subversive of agendas' - Marie Claire

'Fast-paced and engaging. Brilliant, touching and true' - Naomi Alderman, bestselling author of The Power

 Genre Fiction Jewish Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction World Literature

Critic Reviews

As intelligent as it is funny. A beautifully observed literary comedy as well as a painfully accurate description of one big old family mess. A joy (Viv Groskop)
Fast-paced and engaging. Brilliant, touching and true (Naomi Alderman, Women's Prize-winning author of The Power)
A dazzling portrait of a family in crisis
A completely brilliant book. Breathtakingly good (Barbara Trepido, bestselling author of Brother of the More Famous Jack)
Assured, inventive and entertaining . . . Brilliantly climactic . . . Intelligent and witty. The Rubin family may be a singular one but the delights and the difficulties its members have with sex and spirituality, food and domesticity, expectation and achievement, will have a universal appeal
Funny and emotionally true, this is a comedy with the warmest of hearts and the most deliciously subversive of agendas
Charlotte Mendelson’s When We Were Bad will take its place among classic accounts of tribal misadventure with the same apparent effortlessness that proves so pleasurable in her writing. Rarely can readers of contemporary fiction feel themselves to be in such safe hands (Hannah Betts)
Written with tremendous authority, insight, humour and even wisdom . . . Convincing and moving . . . Funny, absorbing and certain to linger in the imagination
Never has the perfect family cracked and crumbled with such elegance, warmth and humour (Meg Rosoff, bestselling author of How We Live Now)
Rarely has the suffocating hold of family life been so powerfully portrayed as it has here . . . Mendelson’s great achievement is to make us care . . . Uncompromising and brave
With great delicacy and elliptical prose, Mendelson draws a subtle and compassionate picture of a family as it unravels. A novel about secrets and the damage they cause
Compelling . . . A poignant and compassionate novel of a family in crisis as one member after another faces some home truths
Secret thoughts and unnameable hangups are teased out in glowing, metaphorical and often very funny prose . . . Mendelson explores the shadows and ghosts haunting a family which appears to outsiders to be a harmonious, messy, intellectual ideal
Brilliant . . . highly entertaining (Matthew Reisz)
Quite superlative
Immensely funny and affecting . . . A novel that wittily and searingly explores the relationships between parents and their adult children . . . an elegant comedy of longing and survival
Astute, affectionately mocking prose and a wicked but merciful intelligence
Absolutely spellbinding, so funny, so moving, so totally believable (Jacqueline Wilson)
No reviews yet