But Penny leaves Zoe a cryptic note, and a passionate affair ensues . . . Once Penny confesses all to her live-in lover, Justine, their path is cleared to a life of mutual contentment and marital bliss. But there is something else Penny needs as badly in her life as Zoe’s adoration, and thus the beginnng of their affair might also have signalled its end.

Wife by Charlotte Mendelson is a beautifully observed and coruscating novel about the joys of passionate love and motherhood, about those left in its wake when passion curdles, and the choices that have to be made when romantic love is no longer enough. It is also wonderfully witty, life-enhancing and wise.