Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since. He is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still and Italian Ways. He has won the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Llewellyn Rhys awards, and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lectures on literary translation in Milan, writes for publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and his many translations from the Italian include works by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Tabucchi and Machiavelli.
In this darkly funny work, Parks offers a story that doesn't shy away from the complexity of relationships, and from the ineffability, indeed, impossibility, of the unmade decision. -- Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi * Independent * Mordantly amusing, deeply sad novel... Plainly written, vivid portrait of a marriage... A cautionary tale for couples heedless of the care and kindness a good relationship requires, and a horror story for those who discover they are simply but irreparably mismatched. -- Rosemary Goring * The Herald * A blackly comic study of a 30-year-old marriage. -- Arminta Wallace * Irish Times * As effective an antidote to Valentine's Day as you could find. -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail * Restless, lightly mordant tale of lust and love lost. -- Jeffrey Burke * Mail on Sunday *