Canarino

In this remarkable debut novel, Katherine Bucknell compellingly captures the tragedy of a disintegrating marriage. She brilliantly evokes a world glittering with wealth and social prestige yet stalked by desolation.

David is an American investment banker working in London; Elizabeth, his wife, is a woman of peerless beauty and refinement. They have two children; their marriage seems perfect. But one summer evening, David finds himself alone in their empty Belgravia mansion. Elizabeth has abandoned him and fled to Virginia. David receives a phonecall from a long-lost friend, and so begins a transatlantic tale about friendship, marriage and betrayal that is filled with unexpected reversals.

'Canarino' is a portrait of intimate relationships set in a world of privilege and achievement. Its characters possess personal gifts in dazzling abundance, yet their appetites to succeed, to be exceptional, tempt them to risk everything. How can we recognise love and friendship? Which bonds last longest? What is the cost of seeking perfection?

Beneath the novel's polished surface lie haunting psychological depths. 'Canarino' is a novel that lingers in the mind, long after the final page has been turned.