The Heart of the Country
A Novel
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Suburban complacency and marital infidelity get their comeuppance in this black comedy by Fay Weldon
When Natalie’s husband, Harry, kisses her and their two children goodbye, departs for the office, and never returns, Natalie immediately blames herself. If she hadn’t been cheating on her husband every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, he never would have left her for his secretary, a local beauty queen. Left penniless, without a husband, and eventually without a home, Natalie finds herself navigating the heartless, winding pathways of the state welfare system. There, she meets Sonia, who offers to shelter Natalie and her children. But Sonia has her own agenda, and her monstrous scheme culminates at the town’s annual carnival, where she will take revenge on both men and women alike.
Narrated from a mental institution by the seething Sonia, The Heart of the Country is a lusty, high-spirited, ultimately cautionary tale about the wages of sin and the pleasures of adultery, which always demand a price.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The strikingly inventive British author ( The Shrapnel Academy , The Life and Loves of a She-Devil ) delivers another biting satire on men's inhumanity to women. Weldon sets the scene in a small town where upper-class Natalie is left suddenly penniless after her husband scarpers with his secretary. Sonia, a woman similarly deserted but accustomed to coping with draconian welfare officials, gives Natalie and her children shelter as well as priceless advice. As local males lust for Natalie's body (and the posh house they assume will come with it), Sonia plans a twist on the annual town carnival, a demonstration hinted at throughout the narrative, and occuring at the novel's horrifying conclusion. This strong story about damaged lives is memorable as well for the lusty humor that makes all Weldon's books irresistible. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club alternates.
