The Master Bedroom

Kate Flynn, 43, has given up her university career to come home and look after her mother in Firenze, their big house by a lake in Cardiff. When Kate meets her old friend David Roberts, she begins to obsess about him: she knows it's because she's bored, but she can't stop, David's marriage isn't as solid as it looks, though, so he takes refuge in Firenze, where he can talk to Kate about music. But David's 17-year-old son Jamie is also drawn to the old house full of books and history. More like Kate than his father is, bookish and clever, her wants to find out all about life from her...Tessa Hardley's intricate, graceful novel explores the tangled webs of connections between parents and children, lovers and friends. The past casts its long shadows in the present; men and women who were once confident they knew themselves, learn to attend to the changes unfolding inside them.