Recently divorced New Zealander Sam Nola returns to London in 2002, where he spent two years in his early twenties. Life for Sam has never been better: a grown-up, half-French daughter from a long-ago affair has recently been in touch, and he has walked into a lucrative role in the booming banking sector.
Spanning three years in the life of writer Katherine Mansfield during the First World War, this novel follows the ups and downs of her relationship with Jack Middleton Murry and her struggle to break through as a writer. As her brother and lovers are drawn into the conflict, Mansfield becomes ever more determined to write the “new kind of fiction” that she feels the times demand. While sticking scrupulously to what is known of Mansfield’s life and friends, this extraordinary novel takes the reader beyond biography into the mind and heart of its subject.