The Photograph

The Photograph

<b>Look out for Penelope Lively’s new book, <i>The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories.</i></b><br /><br />Man Booker Prize–winning novelist Penelope Lively’s latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked “DON’T OPEN—DESTROY.” But Kath’s husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets—within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her—and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.<br />  <br />Propelled by the author’s signature mastery of narrative and psychology, <i>The Photograph</i> is Lively at her very best, the dazzling climax to all she has written before.