Author:Gareth Creer
Annie is a single, working mother. She had made it to the top of her career playing the markets in the City, but since Percy was born, her marriage to a successful West End lawyer already over after she discovered he was having an affair during her pregnancy, she has found it harder and harder to cope. Strung-out and post-natally depressed she has been summarily sacked from her high-powered job, her once impressive career down-sized to a job in a high street estate agents. Feeling totally inadequate as a mother, torn by guilt at not spending more time with her son and by the need to earn money and maintain a career of some sort, Annie is struggling to keep sane.
Then one morning, peering out of the office window, she sees a couple: a young woman with a baby Percy's age, apparently the very model of mother and child, and a guy - black, handsome, detached-looking. Annie is curious about them: attracted to the woman by her naturalness with her child, and to the man by his sexual allure. But when he comes into the office asking about studios to rent, Annie starts to move, semi-consciously, down a path that will lead her into a much darker world than she could ever have imagined, a world that will threaten her very freedom, but which will throw into sharp relief the things of value in her life.
Through his remarkably perceptive portrait of Annie, Gareth Creer explores the realities facing single working mothers today but into her story he skilfully weaves a pacey thriller that tips the balance over from the everyday into a sinister, unfamiliar, subterranean world
A perpetual feast to the reader. Her prose is rich, flawless, intricate, audacious and utterly beautiful
—— Raymond Mortimer, VogueEverything that Colette touched became human
—— The TimesHer sensual prose style made her one of the great writers of 20th century France
—— New York Times Book ReviewAccessible and elusive; greedy and austere; courageous and timid; subversive and complacent; scorchingly honest and sublimely mendacious; an inspired consoler and an existential pessimist—these are the qualities of the artist and the woman. It is time to rediscover them
—— Judith Thurman, biographer of ColetteThis book is a reminder that the satisfaction of working through even a relatively short book comes in part through confronting digressions, dead ends and distractions: the hallmark of conversation between friends, not of Internet speed-reading
—— Wall Street JournalAs the conversation blossoms, the pair wander blissfully off topic into wider philosophical speculation about the nature of culture, for instance or humanity's curious relationship with past, present and future. And along the way there are plenty of pleasant diversions and anecdotes, taking in such diverse subject matter as Italian cinema forgotten French baroque poets, and the place of philosophy in contemporary European education systems. All this, naturally, informed by their love of books
—— Times Literary SupplementThey're great thinkers and talkers, with a lifetime of book-loving behind them, the pair digress into fascinating areas, discussing how new media give rise to their own languages, how we came to have the canon of great literature we do now and the effect that ephemerality, memory, religion and even fakery have had on the world of books
—— HeraldA lively exchange of views… it’s fun to eavesdrop on their conversation
—— Ian Pindar , GuardianPlayful and learned
—— Nick Clee , ObserverThis is the perfect holiday read but would be just as entertainiing on the commute to work as accompanying you pool side
—— handbag.comSecond wives form a club to bitch about their husbands and in-laws in this compelling read
—— heatA really enjoyable, if rather sad, read, full of historical and human interest
—— Irish Sunday IndependentFelix Quinn, the narrator of the book...explains it beautifully - and this is a very good novel... Feeling unsafe makes him feel alive. And loss, of course, is the wellspring of good storytelling
—— Evening StandardThe Act of Love is an ambitious and at times extremely uncomfortable novel
—— The TelegraphIt is an almost frighteningly brilliant achievement. Why did the Booker judges not recognise it?
—— The GuardianThis is a very good novel
—— ScotsmanJacobson's 10th novel is a moving, thought-provoking and darkly witty story of desire and love
—— Irish Times
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