A blisteringly truthful and beautifully rendered picture of the modern marriage and the extraordinary compromises made by people who love one another. Twenty years of marriage to the older widower Max has seen Prue Valour through both the stresses of a resentful stepdaughter and the trials of motherhood. Yet when her stepdaughter returns with her husband from New York, Prue is suddenly thrown into a new and secret life. As the newly arrived couple settles in London, Prue offers a helping hand with babysitting and begins to move regularly between the city and her village in Hampshire. Violet's husband, Jamie, proves a charming counterpoint to his edgy wife and quickly awakens in Prue "slippery feelings and heated imaginations." Strangely drawn to each other, Prue and Jamie soon trace
… read more...the boundaries between innocence and difficult knowledge, between the surrender of desire and the stark realities that result.Read More read less...