From the author of The Elephant Keeper, nominated for the Costa Award for Best Novel, comes a poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy's relationship with his last muse A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress – the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.