A brilliant and caustic cautionary tale from one of Britain's
best-loved and most controversial writers. Hattie and Martyn are a
decent, hard-working, ecologically-minded young couple - partners
with a new baby, bickering over whether they should get married or
not and how to arrange their lives in a morally sustainable way.
Hattie has given up work to look after baby Kitty, but she is,
frankly, bored by domesticity. They meet Agnieszka, a Polish
domestic paragon who's married to a bus driver back home and is
sending money back to her old mother and sister. Morally
responsible couple that they are, Martyn and Hattie take pity and
invite her to live with them. Hattie eventually succumbs to
temptation and asks Agnieszka to baby-sit, and soon she's back at
full-time work. In fact life is pretty much as it was before the
baby came along, except the house is cleaner and better organized,
and she's galloping ahead in her career. Martyn is thrilled and
wants a marriage ceremony but Hattie refuses: life is perfect as it
is, thanks to the existence of Agnieszka, who is modest, docile,
prepared to work for a pittance, and not even too pretty for
comfort. And if she tells the occasional lie - the little sister
turns out to be a child - and her social attitudes are atrocious,
well, they can be overlooked. She'll learn our ways along with the
English language. But soon, things begin to sour. Martyn and
Agnieszka grow closer and it occurs to Hattie now that baby Kitty,
given a choice, would choose Agnieszka over her. Her friends are
warning her - but that's too vulgar for consideration. And their
lives are by now hopelessly intertwined - it's too late. And so the
downward spiral continues as visas, a marriage of convenience and
even her own friends and family conspire to force Hattie out of her
home and her partner's bed ...
General
Imprint: |
HarperPerennial
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
September 2006 |
First published: |
September 2006 |
Authors: |
Fay Weldon
|
Dimensions: |
198 x 129 x 18mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - B-format
|
Pages: |
224 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-00-655165-2 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
Promotions
|
LSN: |
0-00-655165-3 |
Barcode: |
9780006551652 |
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