The country life - Rachel Cusk

Stella Benson sets off for Hilltop, a tiny Sussex village housing a family that is somewhat larger than life. Her hopes for the Maddens may be high, but her station among them - as au pair to their irascible son Martin - is undeniably low. What could possibly have driven her to leave her home, job and life in London for such rural ignominy? Why has she severed all contact with her parents? Why is she reluctant to talk about her past?

The Country Life is a rich and subtle novel about embarrassment, awkwardness and being alone; about families, or the lack of them; and about love in some peculiar guises. It confirms Rachel Cusk as one of the wittiest and most acute British authors writing today.

'Like the novels of Evelyn Waugh or Stella Gibbons, The Country Life has a moral core, meticulously disguised by comedy. Cusk is a highly interesting, original writer and more unusually she is a joy to read' Helen Dunmore, The Times

'In this, her third novel, Rachel Cusk writes with the fastidiousness and delightful grace we have come to expect . . . Stella is a splendidly memorable creation' Sue Gaisford, Independent on Sunday

'This book is a delight . . . The County Life is remarkable for two things; its humour and its menace . . . its mixture of P. G. Wodehouse, Cold Comfort Farm and Jane Austen is a pleasure to read' Tibor Fischer, Sunday Express