Anna Quindlen — Black and Blue

Arrow Books Ltd 1999 Paperback, 304pp. Fran Benedetto's husband beats her. What began as a passionate and trusting marriage is now shadowed by abuse and violence, and Fran is forced to escape by disappearing with her 10-year-old son. With the help of an underground organisation that provides new names and identities for abused wives on the run, Fran begins a new life in Florida, fearful at first, but gradually more confident as she realises that she may have found a true safe haven. She forms new friendships, enjoys her job, and even starts a new relationship - but a fairground accident draws Fran back into the spotlight, and her fears that her husband is pursuing her begin to grow once more. Powerfully suspenseful, Anna Quindlen's new novel is both unputdownable and exceptional in its insight into love, marriage and pain. Through a story which grips at every turn, it explores the bonds between mother and son, and the way our lives are formed by so many fragile threads of family and friendship. (ISBN: 9780099271833). Good.