"Kennedy is a world class writer."--"The New York Times Book Review" A brilliant American debut from one of Scotland's most acclaimed writers, named by Granta as one of the Twenty Best Young British Novelists. Emotionally numb, crippled with insomnia, and caught in a frightening, abusive marriage, Helen Brindle believes that God has recently left her. She spends her days performing banal domestic chores in front of a blaring television. On the BBC one day she watches a self-help guru expound on, among other things, the "rules" of masturbation and the importance of "interior lives." Edward G. Gluck, she discovers has developed a program that guides lost souls toward contentment. Helen seeks him out, hoping to find an answer. Instead she discovers Gluck's own sadomasochistic obsession, and his profound shame and disgust. And what they both encounter, painfully, is the love each fears and both yearn to embrace. "A darkly comic tale.... [that] is hilariously funny about sexual obsession and brilliantly perceptive about the dynamics of human relationships."--"The Baltimore Sun" "From the Trade Paperback edition."
- ISBN13 9780224052207
- Publish Date 6 November 1997 (first published 30 January 1997)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 November 2006
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Jonathan Cape Ltd
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 320
- Language English