Book description
The Judds, formerly of London N1, now scattered, are about to be
thrown together again by the eldest child Juliet's release from prison
in New York. The family is devastated by Juliet's conviction for art
theft. The nature of this theft and the reasons for it plague all the
protagonists.
For Charles, the father, it is a challenge to his sense of rightness
and proof of the disintegration of society. For his wife Daphne, it is
a source of resentment and puzzlement. Brother Charlie and sister
Sophie are less worried by the morality of the theft than by the
dissolution of the certainties of family. For Juliet herself is bitter
and wounded at being the scapegoat for a victimless crime. And she
feels guilty for the pain she has caused.
A powerful elegy to the idiocies and intimacies of family love, this
is the captivating story of an apparently ordinary English family
caught up in uncontrollable events, united again, as much by
apprehension as celebration on the return of the prodigal daughter
Justin Cartwright's novels include the Booker-shortlisted In
Every Face I Meet, the Whitbread Novel Award-winner Leading
the Cheers and the acclaimed White Lightning which was
shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award.
Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa, and now lives in
Islington, London.
