In the best tradition of Ann Patchett, Kazuo Ishiguro and Tessa Hadley - an astonishing, keenly observed story of an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a wholly unexpected turn into a struggle between propriety and passion. 1957: Jean Swinney is a features editor at a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother. It's a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape. That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen's gentle and thoughtful husband, Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter, Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise lonely life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives...with unimaginable consequences. Both a mystery and a love story, Small Pleasures is a captivating look at the conflict between personal fulfilment and duty; a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable. -- Provided by bookflap.