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Separate Beds
  • Published: 4 January 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141944388
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464

Separate Beds




A poignant and compelling novel about the little acts of kindness that can reunite a family and rekindle a marriage

Annie and Tom's marriage is having a mid-life crisis

They seem to have everything - a lovely home, rewarding jobs and three healthy grown-up children - but, beneath the surface, all is not well. Their marriage holds a secret guilt which ensures that whilst they live under the same roof, they sleep in separate beds.

Then Tom comes home one evening and drops a bombshell that threatens to destroy everything they have left. Will he and Annie be able to leave the past behind and weather this storm together? Or will it push them further apart?

Annie is about to discover that out of disaster springs the faint rays of hope. As their family rallies together, for the first time in years, their home is filled with people, conversation, tears - and laughter. And, little by little, Annie and Tom start to open up to one another about the terrible, painful truth they have lived with all these years.

Soon a new, unexpected future starts to take shape as Annie and Tom are offered a second chance at happiness. But will they take it?

  • Published: 4 January 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141944388
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464

About the author

Elizabeth Buchan

Elizabeth Buchan lives in London with her husband and two children and worked in publishing for several years. During this time, she wrote her first books, which included a biography for children: Beatrix Potter: The Story of the Creator of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne). Her first novel for adults, Daughters of the Storm, was set during the French Revolution. Her second, Light of the Moon, took as its subject a female undercover agent operating in occupied France during the Second World War. Her third novel, Consider the Lily, described by the Sunday Times as 'the literary equivalent of the English country garden' and by the Independent as 'a gorgeously well-written tale: funny, sad, sophisticated', won the 1994 Romantic Novel of the Year Award. An international bestseller, there are over 320,000 copies in print in the UK. Her subsequent novel, Perfect Love, was described as 'a powerful story: wise, observant, deeply-felt, with elements that all women will recognize with a smile - or a shudder'. Against Her Nature, published in 1998, was described as 'a modern day Vanity Fair . . . brilliantly done', and Secrets of the Heart was praised by the Mail on Sunday as 'a finely written, highly intelligent romance, without any of the slushiness usually associated with the genre'. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman has been described by The Times as 'Wise, melancholy, funny and sophisticated . . .' Her most recent novel is The Good Wife.

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