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Another compelling family drama from Joanna Trollope, this time set in London Massive national advertising campaign Major media coverage and nationwide tour

About the Author

Author of eagerly awaited and sparklingly readable novels often centred around the domestic nuances and dilemmas of life in contemporary England, Joanna Trollope is also the author of a number of historical novels and of Britannia's Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire. In 1988 she wrote her first contemporary novel, The Choir, and this was followed by A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector's Wife, The Men and the Girls, A Spanish Lover, The Best of Friends, Next of Kin, Other People's Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South and most recently Brother and Sister. She lives in Gloucestershire.

Reviews

'As subtle as Austen, as sharp as Bronte. Trollope's brilliant!' Fay Weldon, MAIL ON SUNDAY 'She writes so beautifully ... in a style so graceful and judicious that you would call it restful if it were not also palpably intelligent' EVENING STANDARD

'As subtle as Austen, as sharp as Bronte. Trollope's brilliant!' Fay Weldon, MAIL ON SUNDAY 'She writes so beautifully ... in a style so graceful and judicious that you would call it restful if it were not also palpably intelligent' EVENING STANDARD

After recent novels like Girl from the South, it is a relief to have Trollope return to her trademark British milieu. Broken-hearted when Ben, her 22-year-old youngest (and last) child at home moves out, Edie can't be the friend and partner her husband, Russell, wants after all their years devoted to child rearing. Then, one by one, her children's lives fray, and they begin to trickle back home at the same time that her acting career revives with the lead in Ibsen's Ghosts-and her young costar, Lazlo, moves in, too. But the children and Edie find that you can't go home again, and Edie realizes that she's ready to move on with her life, too, as an actor, not as a caregiver. Trollope's plot examines the different stages of contemporary life and confronts some of the difficult realities: twentysomethings returning home and still dependent on their parents, women trying to reconcile babies and careers, men dealing with women who earn more than they do, and all the complications these engender. While the ending is less ambiguous and neater than in her earlier novels, this is still vintage Trollope, replete with messy relationships and chaotic family life. No one is better at conveying the manners and mores of middle-class Britain.-Francine Fialkoff, Library Journal Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.