Mapping the Edge Book

Journalist Anna goes missing on a trip to Italy, and all her friends and child, Lily, can do is worry, and imagine. Stella rushes back to England from Holland to help Paul look after young Lily and the pair of them have to come to terms with what Anna's permanent loss would mean.Dunant writes well about the new tensions implicit in new sorts of family and new ways of life; Stella's free life with a semi-detached lover, Paul's relationship with the younger Mike--can these survive having to bring up a child? And what has happened to Anna? Dunant plays games and tells us two very different thrilling stories of Anna's absence. Is Anna perhaps the victim of a drugged drink, and abduction, and is locked in a remote house, a woman in Gothic danger? Or is she caught up in a more modern fantasy--off having raunchy sex with a charming but unsatisfactory lover who talks to her about art and takes her to look at rare paintings? This is an intense book, all the more effective for its every element being provisional; Dunant uses thriller elements to invigorate a novel of loss and risk. --Roz KaveneyRead More