First published 1980
Caro and Grace Bell leave Australia for England in the 1950s, carrying different dreams and temperaments. Grace marries a safe civil servant and settles into conventional life. Caro takes a more turbulent path, falling in love with married astronomer Ted Tice, who studies her with scientific precision while she remains just beyond his reach. She becomes involved with the charismatic but unreliable Paul Ivory, a playwright who promises much and delivers little. The sisters' lives unfold across continents and decades, shaped by choices made in youth and the weight of secrets kept and revealed. As Caro pursues her complicated relationship with Paul, Ted waits in the wings, offering steady devotion she cannot quite accept. The story moves between England and America, following the sisters as they age and confront the gap between their youthful expectations and adult realities. At its heart, this is a story about the persistence of love in its many forms and the ways people fail and forgive each other across time.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Australia, England, United States
Period: 1950s
337 pages · Hardcover · Viking