Permanence

An all-consuming modern love story from the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure

‘Chic, enthralling, utterly plausible... The literary equivalent of a crisp glass of rosé’ Sunday Times
Clara and Francis are adulterers. For months they have been pursuing a feverishly sensual affair, meeting each other in anonymous hotel rooms. Until one morning they wake in a room neither of them recognises…

They find themselves in a parallel world populated entirely by adulterers – a lush and beautiful place dedicated to romance, to pleasure, to true love. The sky outside is painted in perfect, cornflower blue. Fruit grows ripe on the trees each morning and the sun sets in a blaze of pink each night. And as long as Clara and Francis remain here, they will have no one but each other.

How do you know when you’ve found true love? How much would you sacrifice to keep hold of it? And how long can you stay in paradise before the cracks start to show?