大象传媒

Amanda Craig's new novel is a state-of-the-nation black comedy that highlights the growing disconnect between life in London and the rest of the country. The reader is Amanda Lawrence.

Quentin and Lottie Bredin, like many modern couples, can't afford to divorce. Having lost their jobs in the recession, they can't afford to go on living in London either; instead, they must downsize and move their three children to a house in a remote part of Devon. Arrogant and adulterous, Quentin can't understand why Lottie is so angry; devastated and humiliated, Lottie feels herself to have been intolerably wounded.

Ever practical, though, she rents out their London house for an extortionate sum in order to reap the city's ever-rising property market. The income covers the mortgage and allows them to rent a house in Devon (priced suspiciously low, even by rural standards).

Why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beauty of the landscape is ravishing, yet it conceals a dark side involving poverty, revenge, abuse and violence which will rise up to threaten them all.

Reader: Amanda Lawrence

Writer: Amanda Craig

Abridger: Robin Brooks

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.