A Perfect Explanation

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

Finalist for the Desmond Elliott PrizeA superb debut * novel-based on the story of the author's grandmother-following an aristocratic woman who abandons her family and her money in search of a life she can claim as her own. (* The Guardian )Enid Campbell, granddaughter of a duke, grew up surrounded by servants, wanting for nothing except love. But when her brother died in the First World War, a new heir was needed, and it was up to Enid to provide it.A troubled marriage and three children soon followed. Broken by postpartum depression, overwhelmed by motherhood and a loveless marriage, Enid made the shocking decision to abandon her family, thereby starting a chain of events-a kidnap, a court case, and selling her son to her sister for 500-that reverberated through the generations.Interweaving one significant day in 1964, when it seems the family will reunite for one last time, with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation explores the perils of aristocratic privilege, where inheritance is everything and happiness is hard won.