You’ve been married for several years. Long enough, certainly, for the rosy glow of your first love to have faded, dulled by the routine and reality of everyday life – including, in your particular case, his vitriolic ex-wife and two cute but time-intensive stepsons.

Then, one day, you meet him. The man of your dreams. (Or, at least, he will be from now on.) You weren’t expecting it, but you look at him, he looks at you, and it’s there: that spark of attraction, understanding, whatever you call it. (And certainly, you call it something different from your husband, when he finds out.)

The real question, though, is not so much what you call it but what you do about it . . .

'Brownrigg has perfect pitch, and she sees with amazing depth and tenderness into the hearts of her real-as-real characters – and into the reader's heart too' Michael Chabon

‘In this slim, devastating novel, the marvelously talented Sylvia Brownrigg tells us more about the emotional politics of modern marriage – and divorce – than I can remember reading in a long time. It's a bulletin from the front lines: timely, true, and at its heart surprisingly tender’ Ann Packer