A Perfect Explanation

Finalist for the Desmond Elliott Prize A “superb debut”* novel--based on the story of the author’s grandmother--following an aristocratic woman who abandons her family and her money in search of a life she can claim as her own. (* The Guardian ) Enid Campbell, granddaughter of a duke, grew up surrounded by servants, wanting for nothing except love. But when her brother died in the First World War, a new heir was needed, and it was up to Enid to provide it. A troubled marriage and three children soon followed. Broken by postpartum depression, overwhelmed by motherhood and a loveless marriage, Enid made the shocking decision to abandon her family, thereby starting a chain of events--a kidnap, a court case, and selling her son to her sister for £500--that reverberated through the generations. Interweaving one significant day in 1964, when it seems the family will reunite for one last time, with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation explores the perils of aristocratic privilege, where inheritance is everything and happiness is hard won.

Product details

• Authors: Eleanor Anstruther
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2021
• EAN: 9780358415169
• ISBN: 978-0-358-41516-9
• No. of pages: 336
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION: Literary, FICTION: Women, FICTION: Family Life / General, FICTION: Historical / World War I