‘So incredibly accurate and true. Utterly captures the sense of quiet desperation of ordinary lives … and the ways in which life turns on a sixpence’ Kate Mosse
Laura is content enough with her marriage, her two children and her part-time job – until an ex-lover whom she had thought was ‘the one’ gets in touch out of the blue. Suddenly passion and excitement are rekindled, and she realises how stagnant her life has become. But how much happiness has she a right to expect, and what of the pain she might cause to achieve it?
Unknown to Laura, many others in her Sussex village are living with their own unresolved inner dramas. None of them guesses at her crisis. Yet every decision they take has an impact on those around them. The hidden longings of a large cast of characters interweave in a gripping plot that reveals ordinary life at its richest: comic and tragic, poignant and cruel, surprising and moving.
Laura is content enough with her marriage, her two children and her part-time job – until an ex-lover whom she had thought was ‘the one’ gets in touch out of the blue. Suddenly passion and excitement are rekindled, and she realises how stagnant her life has become. But how much happiness has she a right to expect, and what of the pain she might cause to achieve it?
Unknown to Laura, many others in her Sussex village are living with their own unresolved inner dramas. None of them guesses at her crisis. Yet every decision they take has an impact on those around them. The hidden longings of a large cast of characters interweave in a gripping plot that reveals ordinary life at its richest: comic and tragic, poignant and cruel, surprising and moving.
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Reviews
Modern tales written well can be brilliant and Nicholson's story set in Sussex is one such novel ... It's very well done
Utterly captures the sense of quiet desperation of ordinary lives, the huge emotional vulnerability of having children and the ways in which life turns on a sixpence
Beautiful
Everyone is hungry to read something broader and more humane than McEwan and Barnes because we want to understand the society we live in ... The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life is what's been keeping me up at nights
Unobtrusively brilliant - I can't remember enjoying and admiring a new novel more
One of those rare novelists who can write about sex