First published 2009
James Jones has built himself a perfectly unremarkable life. He works as a junior partner at a solicitor's firm, lives with his steady girlfriend, and pays his steady mortgage. The predictable routine suits him fine. He once trained under Michael Donovan, a world-class international lawyer who became everything Jones might have been. But Jones walked away from that ambitious world long ago and never looked back. Then Jones reads that Donovan has collapsed in court. Soon after, his former mentor contacts him with an unexpected request. Donovan has a job that requires Jones's help. The offer threatens to drag Jones back into the high-powered legal world he deliberately left behind. O'Neill crafts a sharp comedy about the gap between what we dream of becoming and what we actually choose to be.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance, legal-thriller
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, second-chance
Period: 21st Century
224 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial