Frances Wingate is one of England's most renowned archaeologists, having recently discovered a lost city in the Saharan desert. On the outside, she appears to have it all. But beneath the surface, the scientist deals with the demands of children and family-as well as a tumultuous, on-again, off-again romance with a married historian.
"As meticulous as Jane Austen, and as deadly as Evelyn Waugh."
Los Angeles Times
"The deft commingling of the sentimental and the matter-of-fact is characteristic of writer Margaret Drabble…Drabble is one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of her generation."
Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker
"Reading a Margaret Drabble novel has always been like cozying up with a cup of hot tea by a gas fire with a dull English winter rain misting the window, and contemplating the story of one's own life."
