Book description
'Feinstein's triumph is to write so well that she makes Lena's
predicament not only moving, in a perfunctory dismissive way, but also
painful ... [she has] an accurate and acute feeling for language, and
pauses, and silence.' Guardian Lena's seemingly contented family life
is coming apart at the seams. Her husband Ben has been having an
affair with the au pair, and as their relationship slides he retreats
more and more into his work in a science lab. Sons Alan and Michael
may appear happy enough, but this is far from the case - both are
responding to a physical world which they alone inhabit. And Lena -
desperately lost and seeking an identity of her own, both inside and
outside of her family unit - increasingly finds solace at the bottom
of a bottle. An exploration of just how lonely - and how magic - a
marriage can be, The Circle is a poignant, poetic and incredibly
assured debut novel.
