Frances Tomelty reads the new novel by Bernard MacLaverty, his first in sixteen years.

A retired Northern Irish couple, Stella and Gerry, are in Amsterdam for a long weekend. Although their relationship appears safe, easy, familiar it's increasingly clear that their growing differences may be too much for their forty-year marriage to withstand. Gerry, once an architect, is a heavy drinker who is set in his ways. Stella, a retired teacher, is tired of his lifestyle and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith.

As the tension grows between them, Stella becomes increasingly distant, while Gerry wrestles with long-buried memories of a distressing experience from early in their marriage.

Reader: Frances Tomelty

Writer: Bernard MacLaverty

Abridger: Kirsteen Cameron

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron. Show less