First published 2018
Paul Roberts meets Susan Macleod when he's nineteen and she's forty-eight. In a small English town where gossip travels faster than truth, their relationship becomes both a scandal and a sanctuary. As years pass, Paul narrates their connection—its passionate beginnings, complicated middle, and inevitable transformations. Susan, married with children, leaves her conventional life to build something unexpected with Paul. But love rarely follows a straight line, and their bond will be tested by family disapproval, personal histories, and the shifting dynamics of power between them. Barnes tracks their relationship with surgical precision, revealing how passion can simultaneously liberate and constrain. Their story becomes a nuanced exploration of connection—how we choose partners, how relationships evolve, and what remains when initial intensity fades.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: forbidden-love, may-december-romance, second-chance
Setting: England
Period: Contemporary
213 pages · Hardcover · Jonathan Cape