Emily Perkins — Novel About My Wife

Bloomsbury (UK) 2009 Paperback, 288pp. Tom Stone is madly in love with his wife Ann. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy a semi-derelict house in Hackney. Despite their spiralling money troubles, they believe this is their settled future. But Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As their child grows, Ann's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, feverish and disturbed. On the verge of losing everything, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives. Novel About My Wife is a taut, sensuous and chilling portrait of a marriage beset by paranoia and obsession. Some tanning. (ISBN: 9780747596509). Good.