All the hopeful lovers - William Nicholson

Belinda, just fifty, wistfully reflects how much better she is at sex now than when she was young and gorgeous, and then discovers to her fury that her husband Tom is having an affair. All the Hopeful Lovers tracks the emotional rollercoaster she lives through over the seven days following her discovery. At the same time we learn what's going on inside the mind of Tom and of his lover Meg. Weaving through this web of middle-aged lovers is a tangle of teenage ones, as Belinda's flirty daughter Chloe tries to set up Jack with shy Alice, without realising that Jack is full of secret longings for her.

These personal dramas are unfolding in December in the tense run-up to Christmas: our own familiar world, rendered pacy, funny and emotionally on the button. Every reader will find a character here who is trying to love as they have loved, and is making a mess of it as they have. Nicholson casts an unflinching eye on men's attitude to sex, on women and marriage and family life, and his empathy and intelligence shine through on every page.