Two strangers, each burdened by the past, meet. Linda Grant asks whether these survivors of the battles of the 70s are meant for each other - or not.

Alix, arrogant, middle-aged and angry, comes home to the derelict port of Liverpool as her mother lies dying. Irritably resigned to living alone for the rest of her life she suddenly finds herself strongly attracted to a stranger. Joseph, an American architect who has come to the city to build a hotel, still refuses to accept that his wife has left him or the trauma of a war he once fought in. Oh, and what happened to a factory in Dresden, which long ago made the perfect face cream?

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2002
Published by
Little Brown
Publication date
Linda Grant

Linda Grant

About the Author

Linda Grant is the author of five non-fiction books and seven novels. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000.
More about Linda Grant

Other nominated books by Linda Grant

The Clothes on Their Backs