Mother's Milk

The novel's perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family – the family featured in St Aubyn's praised trilogy, Some Hope – starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and compelling account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favour of his sons; to Mary, who's consumed by her children and an overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother.

All the while, St Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once-illustrious family whose last vestige of wealth – an old house in the south of France – is about to be donated by Patrick's mother to a New Age foundation. An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery and assisted suicide, Mother's Milk showcases Edward St Aubyn's luminous and acidic prose – and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy.