Nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2008! An intelligent and funny novel about the highs and lows of family life from the award-winning writer of Love in Idleness and Daughters of Jerusalem.

His calm, married, more mature sister, Frances, tries to hold the centre together but the stresses, for Frances, force her to re-examine her own middle way and lead to a decision as shocking in its way as Leo's has been.

Meanwhile, Claudia's husband Norman has, uncharacteristically, a secret to hide - a secret whose imminent unveiling he can do nothing about...

A warm, poignant and true portrayal of a London family in crisis, in love, in denial and - ultimately - in luck.