Matthew Weiner is far from being a novice writer. He is best known for creating Mad Men, the television drama that launched a thousand themed parties. Alongside that programme’s obsessive period detail were examinations of the dark side of success and of the ugly situations seemingly perfect, carefree people get themselves into. In that regard, while Heather, the Totality is Weiner’s first novel, it’s not much of a departure for him, and is no less enjoyable for that.

Weiner introduces Mark and Karen Breakstone by telling us that they ‘got married a little late in life’. After a not-uncynical courtship, they have one child, the titular Heather. The girl’s angelic beauty and startling emotional intelligence convince her parents that ‘she was somehow here on earth to