Close to Home

First published in 1979, this is bestselling author Deborah Moggach's second novel.

'Moggach is at the height of her powers' Sunday Times

'She really is the Nora Ephron of North London' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

'She writes unflinchingly about family life, divorce, children, and the ups and downs of relationships' Independent

Kate Cooper has been married to James for six years, and is trying very hard to be the model wife while he enjoys his high-flying career, but there's always something she feels she doesn't get quite right, whether it's her inability to remove their toddler son's pencil squiggles from the freshly painted walls, to the grubby button holes on her new blouse. Then she meets aspiring novelist Sam, her next door neighbour, a man who shouldn't, but does, have time on his hands. And he makes her laugh. But what about his wife, and their daughter Marion, dreaming her way through adolescence?

CLOSE TO HOME is a novel of one hot summer, of passion and dislocation, and of lives converging in unexpected ways.