Synopsis

From the septuagenarian prostitute exposed in a tabloid sting to the Queen Bee of a local dramatic society upstaged by her cleaner; from the nine-year-old girl caught in the crossfire of her parents’ divorce to the widow stranded on an Antarctic cruise during the COVID pandemic; from the doctor’s wife confronting the enormity of her husband’s online dealings to the forgotten musical comedy star yearning to return to the spotlight; these twelve captivating and compelling stories explore a diverse range of female experience. By turn humorous and poignant, whimsical and provocative, they make for richly rewarding reading.

Praise for Previous Work

‘A serious and important novelist.’ —Rose Tremain

‘Arditti is a master storyteller.’ —Observer

‘Arditti succeeds in creating fiction that is morally serious, moving and intense.’ —Times Literary Supplement

‘Anyone who is afraid that the English novel is sliding into a backwater of domestic anecdote should find their anxieties assuaged by the writing of Michael Arditti.’ —The Times

‘Thank God (maybe literally) for writers like Michael Arditti, whose invigorating novels dare to shake us out of our complacency.’ —The Spectator