The secret intensity of everyday life
By: William Nicholson
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2008
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 346
ISBN-13: 9781847248121; 9781847248183
Subjects: Village communities; Social life and customs; Man-woman relationships; Manners and customs; Social classes; Fiction
Description: "The story starts with 42-year-old Laura, married to Henry, mother of two children, getting a letter from Nick, the former love of her life. Even the handwriting on the envelope brings back the intensity of that first and greatest love affair, over twenty years ago. She never knew why he left her. The wounds have never healed. Now he's back, and wants to meet her again - and she realises she doesn't want to tell Henry. Each decision she takes has a ripple effect on her husband, her children, and all those she comes into contact with. In short chapter after short chapter we follow the chain of human interactions, shifting each time to a new viewpoint, discovering that our characters know nothing of what's going on inside each other. They misread each other, fail to notice the dramas being played out before them, absorbed as they are in their own intense inner lives. Over six short days in Sussex we watch a dozen lives collide and transform each other, without any of the protagonists realising the true impact of their words and actions. " --Publisher.