Gliterary Lunches - Food For Thought

The Other Half Lives
by Sophie Hannah

Ruth Bussey knows what it means to be in the wrong and to be wronged. She once did something she regrets, and her punishment nearly destroyed her. Now Ruth is rebuilding her life, and has found a love she doesn't believe she deserves: Aidan Seed. Aidan is also troubled by a past he can't bear to talk about, until one day he decides he must confide in Ruth. He tells her that years ago he killed someone: a woman called Mary Trelease.

Ruth is confused. She's certain she's heard the name Mary Trelease before, and when she realises why it sounds familiar, her fear and confusion deepen - because the Mary Trelease that Ruth knows is very much alive…

The author

Following the success and critical acclaim of Little Face, Hurting Distance and the Point of Rescue, this is Sophie Hannah's fourth psychological thriller. As an award-winning short story writer and poet, her work is studied at school and degree level across the UK and has been a fellow at both Cambridge and Oxford. Sophie lives in Yorkshire with a young family.

'Hannah's latest classy potboiler is fascinated by strategies of concealment and revelation ... It's beautifully written and precision-engineered to unsettle'
The Guardian

The Consequences of Marriage
by Isla Dewar

When James McElroy saw the ad for a lodger with 'Bibi Sanders' in a smart Edinburgh street, he pictured a glamorous young landlady with whom he would form a meaningful and deep relationship. But Bibi's in her seventies. She's led a full life, including marriage to the domineering and difficult Callum, now deceased, and raised six children. She's not sure what to make of James and suspects - rightly - a troubling secret in his past. When Bibi sets out to re-visit the past for the final time via a tour of Britain in her rather unexpected Volvo sports car, James decides to go with her.

In this irresistible and unputdownable novel, Isla Dewar offers a searing insight into human nature and relationships while also bringing out the humour of the darkest situations. It's a journey full of surprises and revelations - and, in Isla Dewar's inimitable way, it will entertain and enlighten every reader.

The author

Isla Dewar was born in Edinburgh. She wrote articles for magazines and newspapers for many years before she wrote her first novel, KEEPING UP WITH MAGDA, in 1995. She lives in Fife with her husband, a cartoonist; they have two sons.

'Dewar has a great knack of taking ordinary people and situations and flipping them on their heads, and her characters are engagingly eccentric and complex'
Glamour