Behaviour of Love

The brilliant new novel from the author of Work Like Any Other, longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize

 

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 16 April 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

A remarkable case study in the unpredictability of attraction, this psychologically acute novel is a compassionate reflection on the commitments we make, both professional and personal. Esquire praises it as "even-handed and sensitive," while the Daily Mail hails it as a "superb writer" who moves with crisp, swift strokes over the thorny question of how far people ever change.

From 2016 Man Booker longlisted Virginia Reeves comes a moving and riveting new novel about the head doctor of a mental institution whose marriage and job come under threat when he and a younger patient develop a relationship.

Doctor Ed Malinowski believes he has realized most of his dreams. A passionate, ambitious behavioural psychologist, he is now the superintendent of a mental institution and finally turning the previously crumbling hospital around. He also has a home he can be proud of, and a fiercely independent, artistic wife, Laura, whom he hopes will soon be pregnant.

But into this perfect vision of his life comes Penelope, a beautiful, young epileptic who should never have been placed in his institution and whose only chance at getting out is Ed. She is intelligent, charming, and slowly falling in love with her charismatic, compassionate doctor. As their relationship grows more complicated and Laura stubbornly starts working at his hospital, Ed must weigh his professional responsibilities against his personal ones and find a way to save both his job and his family.

A love triangle set in one of the most chaotic, combustible settings imaginable, The Behaviour of Love is an incredibly compulsive, poignant exploration of marriage, lust, and ambition from one of America's great young literary talents.

Reevess theme – as in her debut – is the limits of forgiveness. She explores the ways in which we can forgive those who have hurt us, and the ways in which we can't. The Behaviour of Love is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that will leave readers thinking long after they have turned the last page.

Weight: 254g
Dimension: 197 x 274 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781471171970