Perfect Love [Unabridged] [Paperback]

Modern marriage and its compromises . . . A terrific, compassionate, compelling novel' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"'Modern marriage and its compromises... a terrific, compassionate, compelling novel' Daily Mail; 'Adultery... handled with care and moral intelligence. What a good writer Buchan is' Daily Telegraph; 'A powerful story; wise, observant, deeply felt, with elements all women will recognise with a smile - or a shudder. Very highly recommended' Good Book Guide"

'A powerful story: wise, observant, deeply-felt, with elements all women will recognize with a smile - or a shudder' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Modern marriage and its compromises . . . A terrific, compassionate, compelling novel' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Let me tell you a story of a family, an adultery, a child’s anger and forgiveness . . .

Twenty years of marriage to older Max has seen a busy, contented Prue through the stresses of a resentful stepdaughter and motherhood. Now, Violet has returned with her new husband from New York and, suddenly, Prue is precipitated into a secret life. The small village of Hampshire and the city are very different places and, as Prue moves between the two, she traces the boundaries between innocence and difficult knowledge, between the gluttony and surrender of desire and the stark realities that result. Pinpointing the battleground of the modern – and second – marriage, the author offers a blisteringly truthful and tenderly observed picture of the extraordinary bargains and accommodations that are struck between people who love one another. ‘Modern marriage and its compromises . . . a terrific, compassionate, compelling novel’ Daily Mail ‘Adultery . . . handled with care and moral intelligence. What a good writer Buchan is’ Daily Telegraph ‘A powerful story; wise, observant, deeply felt, with elements all women will recognise with a smile – or a shudder. Very highly recommended’ Good Book Guide

Mark Twain wrote: 'no man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married for a quarter of a century'. This I took as a departure point for a novel that explores the contradictions, bargains and accommodations that two people who do love each other find that they make over a long relationship. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Prue was fortysomething and beauty had never been her problem. It wasn't now. Faithfulness had never been a problem either – but now, suddenly, it was. For twenty years she had loved and cherished Max; indeed, she still loved him. But now she was committing adultery, passionately, agonisingly betraying every vow she had made for a man she had no right to. And for Prue, who believes in the survival of marriage, the mixture of shame and regret, of intense happiness, brings the terror of not knowing what to do next.

Elizabeth Buchan's most powerful novel to date explores incisively and tenderly the dilemma of a woman caught between two men, two lives…

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Elizabeth Buchan is the author of Light of the Moon, Perfect Love, the prizewinning Consider the Lily, Against Her Nature, Secrets of the Heart, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman and The Good Wife. She lives in London with her husband and two children.