'Heart and humour in abundance... exquisite' The Times

After fifty years in London, Alice wants to live out her days in the land of her birth. Her children are divided on whether she stays or goes, and in the wake of their father's death, the imagined stability of the family begins to fray.

Meanwhile youngest daughter Melissa has never let go of a love she lost, and Michael in return, now married to Nicole, is haunted by the failed perfection of the past. As Alice's final decision draws closer, all that is hidden between them rises to the surface . . .

Set against the shadows of a city and a country in turmoil, Diana Evans's ordinary people confront fundamental questions. How should we raise our children? How to do right by our parents? And how, in the midst of everything, can we satisfy ourselves?

'A gorgeous novel from one of our most outstanding writers' Bernardine Evaristo
'Diana Evans is fast proving herself a novelist to rank alongside Anne Tyler' Daily Mail
'A warm but devastating narrative... Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable' Harper's Bazaar
A New York Times *100 Notable Books of 2023*
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
Selected in Best Reads of 2023 by The Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, Harper’s Bazaar, New Statesman and Good Housekeeping
A Waterstones Book of the Year
The Bookseller Editor’s Choice
The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Starred Kirkus Review
Guardian Book of the Day