The Good Guy

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2016 She had to go back and read it again. Twice… How amazing that ink marks on paper can contain such power, she thought, and instantly remembered having had this very thought decades before. She stared at the handwriting searching for clues about its writer – was she friendly, creative, a liar? A life of expectation, tradition and convention and a passionate encounter that threatens to tear it apart. Ted, a car-tyre salesman in 1960s suburban New England, is a dreamer who craves admiration. His wife, Abigail, longs for a life of the mind. On the surface their life is a picture-postcard of suburban civility and squeaky-clean marital harmony – they have a life anyone would dream of. Whereas single-girl Penny just wants to be loved. When a chance encounter brings Ted and Penny together, he becomes enamoured and begins inventing a whole new life with her at its centre. But when this fantasy collides with reality, the fallout threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear. The Good Guy is a deeply compelling debut about love, marriage and what happens when good intentions and self-deception are taken to extremes. A deeply compelling novel set in 1960s suburban America for fans of The Engagements and Tigers in Red Weather.