The story of Deborah Levy’s fifth and latest novel seems unassuming on the surface. A dysfunctional family – the poet Joseph, his distant wife Isabel, their pubescent daughter Nina – and an unsuccessful antique-dealing couple arrive at their holiday villa on the French Riviera to find a beautiful woman, Kitty Finch, naked in their swimming pool. Isabel invites her to stay, infidelity ensues, and tragedy follows.

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