Monogamy

A New York Times Book of the Year DAILY MAIL 'BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR TO GIFT FOR CHRISTMAS' SUNDAY EXPRESS' S MAGAZINE 'WINTER WARMERS' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'BEST BOOKS OF 2020' ONLINE 'One of the most emotionally truthful novels I have ever read' DAISY BUCHANAN 'Almost every line glows with even-handed wisdom - a superb novel, beautifully put together' DAILY MAIL 'An invaluably moving book' JULIET NICOLSON 'One to read first for the story and then to re-read at leisure and marvel at how real these people feel' ERIN KELLY 'Penetrating, intelligent, humane, funny too ... Smart and powerfully alive' TESSA HADLEY Annie is not the first love of Graham's life but she is, he thinks, his last and greatest. Very recently, he has faltered; but he means to put it right. Here they are in marriage, in late middle age, in comfort. Mismatched, and yet so well matched: the bookseller with his appetite, his conviviality, his bigness; the photographer with her delicacy, her astuteness, her reserve. The children are offstage, grown up and scattered on either coast; Graham's first wife, Frieda, is peaceably in their lives, but not between them. Then the unthinkable happens. Now Annie stumbles in the dark: did she know all there was to know about the man who loved her? If no marriage is without its small indiscretions, how great does a betrayal have to be to be to break it? A novel about marriage, family, secrets and love, Monogamy confirms Sue Miller's place among the greatest writers at work in America today.

About the Author :
Sue Miller was born in Chicago in 1943. She is the bestselling author of ten previous novels including The Good Mother, The Distinguished Guest, the Oprah Book Club selection While I Was Gone, Lost in the Forest, the Richard & Judy choice The Senator's Wife, The Lake Shore Limited, The Arsonist and the acclaimed memoir The Story of My Father. Her books have been published in 22 countries and she has been awarded a Guggenheim and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship. Sue Miller lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. suemillerofficial.com

Review :
It was such a pleasure to read the work of someone so talented at the very peak of their powers - it is elegant, assured, captivating and devastating, and it's one of the most emotionally truthful novels I have ever read. Annie filled my head and my heart - this book will stay with me forever This US writer isn't as well known here as she should be - if you like Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Strout, check out this wise, witty page-turner Sue Miller's engrossing novel is infused with generosity and the complicated kind of love readers will recognize from real life An underrated master of US fiction ... Miller asks big questions about marriage and whether it's worth the sacrifices involved. And these fascinating insights are wrapped up in a page-turning plot, too Terrific ... I loved this insightful, wise and witty novel A rich, complex book ... Her great gift is how clearly she sees these all-important people of hers, even in the smallest of moments …Without exception Miller's minor characters spring to life with Dickensian vividness … An old-fashioned, slow burn of a novel that allows readers to dream deeply. Miller knows exactly who she is and what she wants to take pictures of. As a result those pictures are full of depth and contrast and lush detail. They need to be studied, not glanced at. They belong in an art gallery, not on Instagram The shifting perspectives in the narrative … demonstrate how dependent truth is on what is shown to us. Sue Miller's skillfulness at doing so makes a familiar plot into an original story that reflects the real-life complexity of long relationships. Monogamy demonstrates that Miller remains one of the finest cartographers of the territory of marriage Monogamy is a beautifully nuanced portrait of a marriage, and a devastatingly moving insight into love, desire, grief, loss and creativity. Miller's writing is exquisitely understated, with sentences so perfectly formed they'll take your breath away A poignant page-turner, delving deep into our most intimate relationships Miller explores the aftermath of bereavement, in a patient, grown-up style that nonetheless refuses to deny us the thrill of late twists and revelations. Almost every line glows with even handed wisdom - a superb novel, beautifully put together Oh my goodness with what exquisite truth Sue Miller writes. The intimacies and doubts and emotion-swerving relationship that IS marriage, that emotional snakes and ladders, tamed during the day but unleashed in the middle of the night ,were skewered with such perfect insight. I was completely wrapped up in the beautifully, and often so tenderly observed rollercoaster of grief. An invaluably moving book A sensual and perceptive novel … With humour and humanity, Miller resists the simple scorned-wife story and instead crafts a revelatory tale of the complexities - and the absurdities - of love, infidelity, and grief A gripping novel An absorbing and meticulously crafted page-turner … Miller depicts both her characters and their environs with such tenderness and precision that many readers will feel regret when Miller's story, like life itself, reaches its inevitable end Subtle, luxurious pleasure. Bliss No one illuminates the intimacies and betrayals of family life quite like Miller Penetrating, intelligent, humane, funny too ... Smart and powerfully alive In her latest spellbinding read, Sue Miller pulls back the curtain of idealism that has been shielding a complex relationship from scrutiny … Heart-wrenching and absorbing Ambitions, stumbles and fears - of being too honest, or too cold - all surface as they face perhaps the worst that can happen to a couple Miller invests her protagonists with such humanity, you care for even the most flawed of them So many books are written about the early days of marriage but few authors capture what it is to see it through to the bitter end ... One to read first for the story and then to re-read at leisure and marvel at how real these people feel Miller is concerned with deeper mysteries of human motivation … A writer with an uncanny compass for the contrary Miller's thoughtful, searching prose fills in all the background details, and her vivid characters are utterly believable. Brilliant An eloquent chronicler of the complexities of ordinary relationships, whose informal language belies the depths of her insights … Miller nails the contradictory emotions and desires that are responsible for people so often bypassing the seemingly easy road to happiness Miller writes with grace and poise, crafting an examination of love and loss that is both understated and emotionally charged Miller writes with tremendous subtlety and perception Full of Ms. Miller's signature intelligence about people caught between moral responsibility and a hunger for self-realisation Sue Miller's writing, while never showy, builds an honest, elegant world around the reader Fiction so rich, so thoughtful, so absorbing that reading it is like experiencing the passage in our own lives