Arnold has a happy life. He is a university lecturer and poet and is married to Polly who owns a shop where she makes paper and they run a small poetry press together. They have a lovely daughter Evelyn and everything seems to ring with domestic bliss.

Until Arnold, our protagonist, becomes infatuated with one of his wife’s friends Vera, a mother of one of Evelyn’s school friends. Vera, Arnold knows, is religious and attends church regularly. He finds this fascinating as an atheist and he wants to know more about her. He begins by stealing looks at her at the school gates, finding excuses to make small talk. But this is not enough. They embark on an affair.

It’s short but meaningful. Arnold feels guilty yet somehow feels vindicated that his new love (a committed practising Christian) seems fine with their affair.

One day, an art student causes trouble at Polly’s paper shop. His poetry had been rejected by Arnold for publication and he wanted to discuss the matter further with Arnold, who agrees to meet him. It seems that he hasn’t had much of a relationship with his father. Suddenly Arnold panics about his affair with Vera and worries about the effect on his young daughter should she find out.

Arnold is shocked when he is confronted with Vera’s husband who has found out about their affair. Her husband is angry but calm. He has forgiven Arnold. Vera, meanwhile, desperately wants Arnold’s wife to forgive her. Vera’s husband explains his feelings and makes a proposition. He tells Arnold: ‘”The reason you are unable to tell Polly the truth is because you don’t have the strength. The courage. This is not your fault. I don’t blame you. But there is a way of gaining that courage and strength, and that is to come to our church.”‘

Incredulous, Arnold tries to explain that this would be pointless. But, out of fear of Polly finding out about their affair in a cruel way, he agrees.

Then, at two-thirds of the way through, the book switches narrative-stances and we pick up Polly’s point of view. She is puzzled by her husband’s sudden desire to go to church and he seems to distance himself from her and their daughter.

It’s a fantastic book and an interesting example of a dual-narrative novel. We see the family dynamic from her side and we learn that the art-student-poet wasn’t quite telling the truth about his family.

Gerard Woodward deftly explores the big issues (love, religion, family, home life) at once sensitively and destructively. And it is in the destruction, when everything is torn apart and in pieces, do we really know what we are dealing with and what makes these characters so frighteningly human.