The Photograph

Look out for Penelope Lively€s new book, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories.

Man Booker Prize€“winning novelist Penelope Lively€s latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked €œDON€T OPEN€"DESTROY.€ But Kath€s husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets€"within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her€"and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.
  
Propelled by the author€s signature mastery of narrative and psychology, The Photograph is Lively at her very best, the dazzling climax to all she has written before.