Descent

Intelligent, compelling first novel about love and families, with the sharp wit and observation of Allison Pearson and the dark drama of Maggie O'Farrell by the winner of WH Smith Raw Talent Award 2002.

This wonderfully acute and unsettling novel charts the trajectory of a woman's life and a couple's relationship during the last decade of the 20th century.

Against a backdrop of the seismic nineties, and framed by two air disasters (Lockerbie late 1988 and the twin towers 9/11 2001), it's the story of Genevieve, psychiatric nurse, wife, mother, daughter, who's trying to keep a whole lot of stuff airborne while things fall apart, inside and out.

Her husband is a filmmaker, usually absent, at first on small-budget art films ('The Snow Queen') in out of the way places. But his career takes off, and suddenly he's making big budget star-vehicle movies (still 'The Snow Queen') in exotic locations.

While her life narrows (babies, breastfeeding, builders), his expands: this is her narrative, addressed to him, trying to make sense of their lives and the forces - external and internal, family history and genetics, ambition and domesticity - which pull them apart. Her work drives her nuts but keeps her sane, and the world of the sad, crazed women in her charge provides a hilarious, heartbreaking backdrop to a world going off the rails.

Unputdownable, funny and sad, 'Descent' marks the arrival of a talented new novelist.