isbn 978074758597 Bloomsbury, 2007

David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife Eleanor could be the sparkling girl he once found so irrestible: that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held, but a few careless words spoken by his mother's friend have left him restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie. The relationship between David and Eleanor from youth to age underpins the whole book.  A beautifully written novel about family secrets, brilliantly cataloguing the despair and longing of the characters. 369pp