The novel
Blind Bitter Happiness
You don't get any better or funnier than this delightful tale of a selfish sod growing up in Auckland and Wellington… one of this year's most hilarious novels. I can't wait for a sequel.
Sunday Times
Buy on Amazon
About the book
When you're young, pig-headed and accident-prone, and have seven demanding brothers and sisters, life can be a battle for survival. Frank Keneally — restless, precocious son of a busy family doctor — learns about life, families, sex, pianos and friendship the hard way. He's doing it tough growing up in the Pākehā heartland, but he can give as good as he gets, and he has one advantage: he's smart.
Actor Peter Feeney's first novel is a humorous account of a 1970s childhood that starts with mad pranks and ends with drinking binges. Funny, fast-moving and incidentally nostalgic, it will make you both laugh and cry. Highlighted by Henrik Drescher's eye-catching illustrations, it's an unpretentious and delightful novel for anyone with a sense of humour and memories of The Waltons.
The first naked woman I ever saw was my grandmother. I was late for a piano lesson and the ranch slider was open. I popped into the bathroom for a wee. I entered an innocent seven-year-old. Moments later I emerged, a crushed and disillusioned old man.
From Blind Bitter HappinessNow a TV series
Peter Feeney's Blind Bitter Happiness has been adapted into a TV series, now showing on RNZ.
Watch on RNZ