Blackheath - Softcover

'Fresh, honest, very funny, startlingly relevant. His is the male perspective on the modern female coven, its repressed ambivalence, its ambiguous sexuality, its deadly territories of parenting, school gate and domesticity; that he renders that perspective artistically, personally and politically with such wit and intellectual grace makes his novel a rare and complex commentary on contemporary middle class values. The great male American novelists have written passionately about domesticity, parenthood, marriage; there has been no English equivalent, just a hangdog pseudo-comic 'dad' literature as disposable as it is dishonest. Adam's book recalls Updike in his Rabbit years: sensual, involved, poetic, incorrect, and enthralling in its honesty.' RACHEL CUSK; 'Elegant, moving, intelligent and timely. A book by a man who understands women better than they understand themselves.' FAY WELDON; 'Baron is a writer to watch.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Amelia has everything: two perfect children, a successful husband who loves her, and a big house in London's affluent Blackheath. So why does she wake up one morning with a distaste for her daughter and an unexplained attraction to James, a dad she sees in the playground at drop off?James has everything: a happy marriage to poet and fellow academic Alice and two children they both adore, sharing the childcare and fitting it around their work commitments. James loves his children intensely, but caring for them during the week makes him feel like a failure, especially when the suited-up bankers and lawyers of Blackheath pass him on the school run, heading for the station and their real lives in the city. When his wife's star begins to rise, James is tempted back into his old career on the comedy circuit, looking for a way to cure his sense that something vital is missing.As the two couples' lives increasingly overlap, all four characters are thrown into turmoil, and the repercussions threaten to blow both families apart.