In recent years there have been far too many reworks of Jane Austen novels - we've even had Pride and Prejudice With Zombies - and truly I didn't think the world needed more but I'm making an exception for Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible because it's so much fun.
US author Sittenfeld manages to straddle the literary and popular fiction worlds. Her prose is witty and sharp; she knows how to tell a story. Her latest novel is part of the Austen Project, which has paired six contemporary bestselling writers with Austen's six novels. Curtis got the job of retelling Pride and Prejudice in modern style.
And so she has turned Liz Bennet into a New York magazine writer, Jane is a yoga teacher and Mary an academic, while Lydia and Kitty are obsessed with Crossfit and paleo diets. The five unmarried sisters are brought together in their Cincinnati home after their father has a health scare. The new love interest in town is a doctor, Chip Bingley, fresh from appearing in a
Bachelor
