<b>'Dazzling ... life-affirming and compulsively readable' </b><i>Sunday Times</i><br><i><br></i><b>'Patchett blends wisdom and humanity jointly with the icy forensic gaze of someone not afraid to expose the frailties of human behaviour ... Read it' </b>Jojo Moyes<br><br>'<b>An outstanding novel ... a master of her art' </b><i>Observer</i><br><br>It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later.<br><br>In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets the famous author Leon Posen one night at the bar, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story...<br>