Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains

"[An] imaginative first novel, the beguiling and unsettling tale of an obese Englishman, a young girl, a Slovakian shoemaker and an ice cream man."— Publishers Weekly Theobald Moon lives in a lonely corner of the Arizona desert, tending his spectacular cactus garden, his tiny mobile home, and his astounding appetite. He has fled a stifled, cardigan-and-tea-cozy life in south London for this unfamiliar country, and is raising his daughter, Josephine, who has known no other life than their cheerful yet isolated American one. But when a jangling ice-cream truck finds its way into the desert carrying two ill-fated lovers—a pregnant Slovakian shoemaker and a mysterious ice-cream man—it throws Theo's and Josie's careful lives into a chaotic state for which they're totally unprepared. Fantastic upheaval ensues, as well as an inspired redemption. Innovative, funny, and profound, this "heartfelt and stylish" novel ( The Times) explores love and responsibility, and the joys and fears they inspire.