Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively again shows her mastery of different viewpoints as she delves into the mystery of happy family life.

From the bestselling author of A Week in Paris, and A Place of Secrets, comes a timeless love story, lost in letters of the past . . . Can a chance encounter unlock one woman's past? On holiday in Italy, Briony Wood becomes fascinated by the wartime story of a ruined villa hidden amongst the hills of Naples. Not only is it the very place where her grandfather was stationed as a soldier in 1943, but she also discovers that it harbours the secret of...

In a freezing, desolate Edinburgh flat an old woman takes her last breath surrounded by the few objects she has accrued over a lifetime: an emerald dress, a brazil nut engraved with the ten commandments - and six orange pips sucked dry. Meanwhile, guided by the flip of a coin, Margaret Penny arrives back at her old family home, escaping a life in London recently turned to ash. Faced with relying on a resentful mother she has never really known, Margaret...

When baby Oliver breaks his arm, no-one can (or will) say how it happened. His mother is exhausted. His father is angry. His older sister is resentful. And they all have something to hide.

Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex-film star given to shooting at anyone who ventures up their driveway. He is also about to find out something about a woman he lost touch with 20 years ago, and this discovery will send him off-course, far away from wife and home. Will...

Set on a Cornish cliff, Atlantic House has been the jewel in the Carew family crown for centuries. Each year, the Carew sisters embark on the yearly trip down to Cornwall for the summer holidays, but they are as different as vinegar and honey: Prudence, hard-nosed businesswoman and married to the meek and mild Francis, she is about to get a shock reminder that you should never take anything for granted. Constance, homemaker and loving wife to philandering...

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968.

Anna Temple is about to start a new life. It's just not quite the one she had in mind. After the sudden death of her mother, Anna realises she must live for the moment. Swapping hedge funds for herbaceous borders, and shares for scented stocks, she leaves the City to fulfil her dream of becoming a garden-designer.

Worthing, 1933 Ruby Bateman works at the prestigious Warnes Hotel on Worthing seafront. She enjoys her job and the camaraderie with the girls at the hotel, but she also loves a day off. On an outing to the Sussex Downs, Ruby meets handsome photographer Jim Searle and instantly falls for him. The only cloud to overshadow her otherwise perfect trip is the dark mood of her father when she returns home. It's the first of many clouds to loom threateningly...

Jean Taylor's life was blissfully ordinary. Nice house, nice husband. Glen was all she ever wanted: her Prince Charming. But then everything changed. The newspapers found a new name for Glen: MONSTER, they shrieked. Jean was married to a man accused of the unimaginable. And as the years ticked by, with no sign of the little girl he had been suspected of taking, their lives were constantly splashed across the front pages. But now Glen is dead, and...