Customer Reviews

Other Peoples Marriages

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If you're a traditionalist, you may not like this book since it's about adultery. But if you are a realist about human nature and marriage, you will find this novel erotic, painful, and ultimately insightful about both the strengths and the weaknesses of the marriage bond.

Nina Cort, a young widow, moves from modern-day London back to her hometown in Grafton to begin a new life for herself. She becomes friendly with a group of five apparently happily married couples who are all long-time friends, but her loneliness leads her to enter into an affair with one of the husbands in the group. When the affair becomes known, it exposes the hidden faults in the marriages of all five of the couples and starts a chain reaction of infidelities among them. All of the couples in the group, even the lone pair who do not stray, end up redefining the terms of their relationships to determine whether they will - or will not - stay together. As for Nina, she discovers a painful truth about her own marriage, which she had thought was perfect.

Rosie Thomas is very skillful at realistically portraying the personalities and thought processes of men as well as women, which is something that not all authors of "women's literature" can do. You may not like all of her characters and some of their actions but, just as in real life, they are who they are and you either choose to accept them or not with all of their faults as well as their good points.