This is a real tour-de-force of fiction writing! Lucy Ellmann's confident narrative voice picks you up from the opening sentence and refuses to let you go long after the final full-stop. To presume MIMI as another chick-lit set in the Big Apple would be a crime. Ellmann's 'anti-valentine' love story is refreshingly real, driven by intelligent characters, and peppered with enough profanities to keep even Caitlin Moran happy. Like Scarlett Thomas and Ned Beauman, Ellmann is one of those truly great authors who inspires you to read more; to discover the music, cultures, politics etc. that each character is immersed in. She somehow even manages to make eggnog sound appealing!