A Stairway to Paradise

Madeleine St John's poignant characteristically witty new and novel tells the story of three people locked in an unhappy tangle of emotions and desires, none able to articulate the precise quality of their longing and dissatisfaction. There's Alex, miserable in his cold and calmly professional marriage, unable to leave because of his two children. Next comes Andrew, recently home from ten years in America, leaving an ex-wife and a beloved daughter on the other side of the world. And finally there's Barbara, the enchanting and lustrous object of their affections, formally self-possessed but strangely aimless and unfulfilled.

With elegance and acuity, Madeleine St John chronicles their progress through numerous false starts, reversals, and misapprehensions. The result is a deeper understanding of longing and its significant companion -- loss.