A book everyone should be made to read at least once in their lifetime. Witty and a catchy plot, thank you Richard!

I went 50% into the book but was not able to force myself to continue reading it. I personally just didn't vibe with the third party narration. There were just too many instances of "Hill thinks..." it started to feel like the book could've used some editing. DNF. Just didn't work for me, but might for someone else.

3.5★
“He watches as Trudy picks up a wooden spoon from the kitchen worktop, lick it clean, and use it to stir the ratatouille.

Are you a qualified carer? Hill says.

I met Roger in the Co-op, Trudy says. Isn’t that how everyone gets these jobs?

Trudy picks up her phone from the worktop, holding it above her head for signal as she walks over towards the window where she then stands, her back turned to Hill.

I have a voicemail but no reception to listen to it, Trudy says. Is that somehow profound?”

This book won the Not the Booker Prize for 2020. It has been said to be poignant, funny, sad and emotional. Yes, all of those things are true, but like a lot of other readers, I wasn’t captivated. Although I don’t mind a lack of quotation marks, it will alienate the many readers who refuse to read books in this format.

The basis of the story is that Hill has returned to his childhood home on a Welsh island where his father is dying. Here and there through the book we see earlier emails to Hill where Roger, his father, says he may need to find a carer soon. Obviously, he found Trudy.

It can be hard to follow the back and forth between Hill and other characters (usually Trudy, in real life) and his internal monologue (and arguments back and forth with himself).

Something I realised only after reading it, is that some of my issues were probably caused by my reading the Kindle version from NetGalley, which doesn’t follow the book’s formatting very well. I’ve now had a look at the PDF version, and the spacing between thoughts and comments makes it work much better.

Hill is very antsy and can’t quite settle on anything. He seems to live online, and reception is so bad on the island, that his communication with friends (? are they friends?) and others is patchy, at best.

“Hill touches his iPhone, opening then closing a free backgammon app, opening then closing a free solitaire app, opening then closing a free draughts app. Hill touches his iPhone and puts Ambient Sounds: Rain in a Barrel on repeat.

Thank you rain, thank you barrel, Hill thinks.”

Hill has a cat, Dave, and Trudy has a dog, Ralph. The house is actually Hill’s (his mother left it to him), but Trudy keeps referring to it as Roger’s house, which irks. Hill has good reason to be a bit of an emotional wreck, and Trudy does what she can, but she is a fairly upbeat person who seems to feel she can buck up his spirits, I think.

He is coaxed into meeting up with classmates at a school reunion (not a happy thought), and one night he remembers this.

“Maxim had a haircut like a young Ralph Macchio and used to sit in the sixth form basement eating Chinese noodles and playing Snake on his Nokia. He’d threatened to have someone killed but fifteen years later didn’t even have a LinkedIn. Wtf, Maxim, Hill had thought as he drifted off to sleep.”

Eventually, memories force themselves into his consciousness, past the ratatouille and the many movies he and Trudy watch. I was struck by this simple one, because I still remember the cracks on the ceiling of my childhood home, that I thought was special, because of one of my favourite children's books, Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans (most of which I used to be able to recite).

“Hill feels under the blanket for his phone, checks the time, then lies back down on the bed and stares up at the cracked ceiling rose. I used to lie here, Dave, and look at these cracks for hours every Sunday morning, Hill says. These cracks are older than me. They’re older than Google.”

My Goodreads review has an illustration of Madeline's room.
“… and a crack on the ceiling had the habit of sometimes looking like a rabbit.” from Madeline

I do understand its appeal, but even with the proper print formatting, it wouldn’t have been on my short list. Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

Here’s the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize story.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

I kinda get what the author was trying to do with the writing style he chose for this book, but... but it made me feel nothing. It's a short book yet it kept dragging on and on and on.

Usually I am a fan of a minimalist writing approach, but this one doesn't work for me. It was simply annoying.

I tried,l really did,but my reaction to this was one of real irritation about this book. It tried too hard to be funny and ended up being really forced. The main characters relationship with Trudi didn't work for me at all and the lead was too unlikable for me to care. The setting on Anglesey helped but even though it is a short book it wasn't enough to keep my interest. It did win the Not the Booker award so obviously I am in a minority but this is my honest opinion of the book. Apologies to the writer and the publishers for being negative.Good luck with it anyway.

Hello friend we missed you was an unexpected read. For readers of a certain age there are lots of cultural references that will immerse you deeper into the novel, but there is something for everyone in this book which has an almost script like quality. As we follow Hill's journey back to his remote childhood home we experience his regression into the past that has shaped him. The minimalistic writing style is finely honed and realistic in tone, giving a real sense of being on the protagonist's shoulder living his life with him. Roberts drips tantalising nuggets of information to help the reader discover the narrator as he is discovering himself. Great literary fiction with a unique voice.

A solid work. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good, middle of the road read that is neither expected nor unexpected. Hilarious and engaging.

Often hailed a gem, I unfortunately did not find this quirky little novel all that funny but did find the style and pacing a little bit hypnotic after a while. There is a great deal of repetition which isn't tedious, it was soothing. It's got a poetic quality to it.
Literary quirks I enjoyed were literal narration of anything the main character, Hill, thought.
Important banana legacy, thinks Hill is one such example of this and it happens about 600 times throughout this short novel. There is also a slo mo quality to this even though it's a fast read. It also feels a little like a satire of a screenplay, like a piss take of a really bad student production.
I also liked that he used tilde several times. I can't believe an editor didn't make him take it out.
Quirks I didn't enjoy were the endless lists of popular references but I suppose they were necessary to tag these people as from a certain time and place.
The story is as follows: This man, Hill, goes to Wales to visit his dying father who is called Roger. Roger has a carer called Trudy. Trudy and Hill hook up. Afterwards Trudy wants to facebook stalk a previous one night stand. (Ok that bit was sort of funny). Trudy and Hill watch an awful lot of TV together and are on their phones an awful lot too. There's a back story where Jack Black pretended to want to produce one of Hill's films and Hill composes a lot of draft emails to Jack Black but thankfully doesn't send them.
It's a strange little glimpse of a moment in this Hill character's life and in re-reading it, I got a lot more out of it. Hill had a rich inner life and meeting Trudy helped him to access his painful grieving memories. It possibly started off as a little bit too strange to be able to relax into it - there is a sense of impending doom about it which makes it difficult to do this.
And the title? Well without spoilers you'll just have to read it to find out that a-piece-a of the puzzle.

This book was cleverly written, and I would read a collection of short stories by Roberts. Sadly, as a novel this seemed to go nowhere.

No. Awful. After the first few pages, I thought: at least it is short. But it's still a couple of hundred pages too long.

Title : Hello Friend we Missed You

Author : Richard Owain Roberts

Now Winner of the 2020 Guardian Not A Booker Prize. Also thank you so much publishers for providing me with a ecopy via NetGalley.

This was our Riot Club Pick for the month of November and it did win with a huge margin when compared to other books in the category. I was pretty much intrigued by the blurb of the book which promised a story of death, depression and how there are fun elements in the book talking about this topic. Here is my take on why the book did and did not work for me.

Hello Friend We Missed You is the story of Hill who returns back to his hometown after he learnt of his father's illness. He claims that his podcast is being brought to screen by none other than Jack Black and how he is looking forward to it. At his hometown, he meets Trudy, his father's caretaker and how his life changes getting to know her and adjusting to the life which he had left years back.

This book was annoying. I'm sorry to bring this up but I kept hoping as we reach the end of the book, it would get better and yet it just did not. The main character seemed to have a lot of anxiety issues himself and the author tried to reflect the same in his words (full marks on that) but after a certain point in the story, the book just did not seem to connect with me at any level. As the book kept moving, there were a lot of questions that just kept popping up which were never given any closure till the end of the book.

Maybe a lot of the readers may find the book intriguing, can't deny that but apparently this book was just ain't for me. Takes a lot of effort to not pull your hair from frustration whenever the words 'Hill thinks' comes up. Not just my cup of tea.

I wish I'd read this sooner, maybe I was put off by the title? Having read it and loved it, and been completely impressed by author Richard Owain Roberts's mastery, I'm now certain there must be ample and profound reason for the name of the book. Everything else about it brilliant.

The main character Hill, seems never to have gotten over the loss of his mother, to suicide, when he was 11. There is an ambiguity to the way characters are referenced that makes it unclear whether the person who is sick or dead is a lover or a parent; I wish I didn't know how aptly this uncertainty fits in with the tailspin trauma that follows inexplicable loss. In a different year it might seem implausible that Hill would suffer so much in his 30-some years, but this story is written so well it's practically cinematic in presentation. The interplay of apps, social media and one-sided conversations with Jack Black work beautifully. Despite his isolation, an entertaining variety of Hill's relationships are looked at or alluded to or comically portrayed.

If I had read this just a few weeks earlier I totally would've voted it best fiction 2020. Now why do I have such an incredible urge to wear an oversized cable knit sweater over my leggings?

I just could not get into this book. I found it super hard to follow, and I was never able to get invested in the story. I'm not sure if it was because of the writing style, but it didn't keep my interest. I did not finish at 23% because I just couldn't get into it. This type of prose typically isn't my style anyway, so if you enjoy unique writing styles you may want to check it out. I probably wouldn't widely recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley and Parthian Books for sending me this book to review.

I started the book with great anticipation as it had won the “Not the Booker Award.” The fact that it is an original and cleverly written book cannot be denied. However, I thought it was a bit uneven and whimsical.
The book is very contemporary: there are frequent references to NetFlix, emails, trolling, smoothies and a rather inexpensive deodorant “Lynx Africa.” In fact, the very title “Hello Friend, We Missed You” is a text which is repeated ten times and which the protagonist, Hill receives from Domino’s Pizza,.

Hill has no meaningful relationships: his mother committed suicide when he was 11 and his wife died in an accident. He has come to visit Roger, his father, who has a terminal illness and who lives in a house which is willed to him by Hill’s mother. We never really see Roger, we hear him coughing in the next room; and then there are the draft emails Hill writes to Jack Black, who once again is a ghostly presence we never encounter. Hill seems to be a concept film maker and the rights of which have been acquired by Black and which seems to have been stalled in development.

The only relationship he has, is with Roger’s carer, Trudy, who is almost the antithesis to Hill. She tells him that not doing the things which give you pleasure, results in self-harm. The stylistic devices Roberts uses—short clipped sentences, and frequent repetitions, texts from his friend Ed which are rarely replied—all seem to indicate that Hill is a missing person as suggested by the title. In fact, he is so alienated even from Roger that he does not call him father and addresses him by his first name.

All this takes place on an island, which seems to disprove the fact that “No Man is an Island”—Hill certainly seems to be a self-contained one.

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

Goodness what a mess this book was. Reads like a rambling Facebook or blog post. No direction, no sense of anything just a jumble of words.
I’m unsure why people are praising this style and I’m still wondering how in the world someone thought it should be published.

What a mess.

Hello Friend We Missed You is the novel debut of Richard Owain Roberts, a Welsh author who has previously won literary awards for his short stories. This book won the Not the Booker Prize, an award presented annually by The Guardian. In 2020, 210 books were nominated and this book was the winner of both the readers' jury and the professional jury. For me this book turned out to be the wrong choice, because I could barely finish it. Nevertheless, I can also understand why other readers find it entertaining.

The novel is a mixture of conversations between Hill and Trudy, email correspondences and messages he sends on his phone. I had to get used to the writing style; short sentences and paragraphs with a lot of white space in between - often even between a few sentences. The chapters also consist of only a few pages. This structure, combined with the frequent use of the characters' first names, creates a staccato rhythm in which thoughts or descriptions always seem to end prematurely or lead nowhere. Because of this, I did not enter in a reading flow, which was further enhanced by the anecdotal nature of the story.

“Hill turns off the engine and looks straight ahead. The carpark is at ~5% capacity.
I will never leave here, Hill thinks.
Hill picks up a small box of low calorie toffees and puts two in his mouth.
Don’t crunch them, Hill thinks.
Hill crunches the toffees and swallows the pieces as quickly as he can.
Eat when you feel sad, Hill thinks.”

It is unusual that Roger is only mentioned in the emails he sends to Hill, or in the background when Hill is in the house. So he's more of a passive character who acts as a trigger for Hill's childhood memories. That is an interesting intervention, but I missed further deepening of Hill's feelings, which would have created a certain tension. Now it lingered too much for me on the level of brief events and meaningless thoughts. Perhaps this creates a certain type of humor, but it didn't work for me.

The author knows how to convey the addictive effect of mobile phones, apps and Neflix. They are ways to pass the time, more of a habit than a conscious choice. They reflect Hill's listlessness and aimlessness. However, a number of things passed me by, which reinforced my feeling that this is rather a book for readers in their 20s or 30s.

Hello friend we missed you is difficult to compare to other novels. The own style and the detached way in which the characters take shape are strengths of the author that will appeal to a certain audience, but turned out to be too great an obstacle for me to enjoy the book.

Not really my style of writing, this is very sparse text with lots of gaps to fill in. Even though some of chapters are very small, it's almost too much detail on some elements. I don't think it will date well.
Not one for me, but thank you for the chance to read it.

A zero star book if there ever was one. It's like a draft of your first novel which nobody should have to see. A little shocked with the level of self-acceptance that was required to even send it to the publishers. Is it possibly a scam of some sort?

As far as the trope "a confused intellectual with mediocre/dead-end/absent career/life is going back home to take care of his sick parent," I could name superior examples. Classic movie Elizabethtown. Rachel Khong's Goodbye Vitamin. Any Paul Rudd movie, I think? I am partial to this plot (apart from the dread that I will have to enact it one day, as per my frail mother's sinister predictions). It just failed spectacularly, as any plot is bound to when furnished by non-characters. There's zero realism, zero motivation, zero psychology. No dialog. No feelings. If that's what we are required to read now, I'm quitting the whole contemporary lit game.

Some Questions:

Why is Trudy wearing oversized cable-knit sweater and shorts all the time? What season is it?
Why is it set in Wales, yet the location reads like Missoula, MT, Palm Springs CA, or Buffalo NY?
What is a "very weak joint"?

I'm happy that they are fictional characters, so I can say without guilt that by 50% I wished they all died horribly and it would be over.

I have received an advance review copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hello Friend We Miss You is a story set on the island of Môn. Hill, a filmmaker, has been through a lot. He recently lost his wife and now he's returning to the island of his childhood to visit his dying father. Hill is estranged from his father and he blames him for his mother's death.
In his childhood home Hill meets Trudy, his father's carer. Hill and Trudy start talking end end up liking eachother.

Richard Owain Roberts has a unique minimalistic style of writing. Once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it. The style fits this story about loss, love, grieve and anxiety.