• The Gambia National Library, Banjul, The Gambia

Publisher of Nominated Edition
Scribner UK ISBN 0743239997

Jan has been dying for six years, bringing his unhappy marriage with Annemieke to an end in middle age. Their sons have given them one last gift, a holiday in the Caribbean.

Dorothy and George have also been given a holiday, by their granddaughter - their first and probably last trip overseas. They are reluctant to leave the rain and routine of Bexhill-on-Sea, but the tickets are booked.

In pristine surroundings, the two couples are unable to escape their troubles, until a few chance events - a disappearance, an assault and a man called Bill Moloney - allow them to make something out of the ashes of their love.

This is a different love story - about how there's seldom a 'happily ever after', but sometimes a chance to redeem a life half-lived. It introduces Louise Dean as a remarkably insightful and compassionate writer, whose moving and startlingly funny prose can make us see our lives afresh.

Louise Dean lives in France. Becoming Strangers, long-listed for the 2004 Man Booker Prize and winner of the Betty Trask Award, is her first book.