Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple - young, good-looking, made for each other.

The moment she walked into his mother''s grocery store in Baltimore, he was smitten, and in the heat of World War II fervour, they marry in haste. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counter-culture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayers of later years, we watch their lives unspool and see the consequences of their very mismatched marriage.

**ANNE TYLER HAS SOLD OVER 8 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE**

''Anne Tyler takes the ordinary, the small, and makes them sing'' Rachel Joyce

''She knows all the secrets of the human heart'' Monica Ali

''A masterly author'' Sebastian Faulks

''I love Anne Tyler. I''ve read every single book she''s written'' Jacqueline Wilson