Author:John Updike,John Banville

Middle-aged, brilliant and bored, Roger Lambert is a professor of Divinity at a New England university. Firmly convinced that religious belief can only justified by recourse to pure faith, he is dismissive when visited by a gangling student who claims, with evangelical zeal, that computer technology is on the brink of proving the existence of God. But when his unhappy wife flings herself into an affair with the younger man, and Roger's faith in his own placid life is thrown into question. With his marriage close to collapse, he finds himself increasingly drawn to his own half-niece, the nineteen-year-old Verna, in this cunning and comic exploration of religion, uncertainty and passion.
Provides equal does of sex and repression in war-torn Britain with panache and pace
—— The TimesA very good book indeed...rich in detail, careful and subtle in observation, mature in judgement
—— Susan HillExtraordinarily accomplished and fast-moving
—— Financial TimesIt's hard to overpraise Mary Wesley's novel...so tingling and spry with life that put a mirror to the book and I'll almost swear it will mist over with the breath of the five young cousins
—— The TimesA reading experience that evokes contemporary China with absurdist exactitude
—— Financial TimesSome of the best passages are, like this, sensuous and plainly descriptive. There is a fantastic mini-essay on the aphrodisiac qualities of the sea cucumber
—— Toby Litt , GuardianWell-crafted, often hilarious and surreal
—— Big IssueAn amusing, charming read with a satirical edge
—— Metro






