Small Pleasures

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021

Cover Art for 9781474613897, Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
ISBN: 9781474613897
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Published: 14 July, 2020
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Editions:
12 other editions of this product

'The 21st century heir to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Taylor. SMALL PLEASURES is both gripping and a huge delight' Amanda Craig, author of THE LIE OF THE LAND 1957, south-east suburbs of London. Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen is now a friend, and her quirky and charming daughter Margaret a sort of surrogate child. And Jean doesn't mean to fall in love with Gretchen's husband, Howard, but Howard surprises her with his dry wit, his intelligence and his kindness - and when she does fall, she falls hard. But he is married, and to her friend - who is also the subject of the story she is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness... But there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable.

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