Caroline's Bikini

Alright I said, Ill try... This is how Emily Stuart opens her intricate tale of a classic love affair that becomes Carolines Bikini: a swirling cocktail of infatuation, obsession, and imagination.

The moment that Emilys friend Evan Gordonstone - a successful middle-aged financier - meets Caroline Beresford - a glamorous former horsewoman, and now housewife, hostess, and landlady - there is a PING! At least, thats how Evan describes it to Emily when he persuades her to record his story: the story of falling into unrequited love, which is as old as Western literature itself. Thus begins a hypnotic series of conversations set against the beguiling backdrop of West Londons bars, fuelled in intensity by endless G&Ts and Q&As. From the depths of mid-winter to Julys hot swelter, Emilys narration of Evans passion for Caroline will take him to the brink of his own destruction.

Written in a voice so playful, so charismatic, and so thoughtfully aware of the responsibilities of fiction it can only be by Kirsty Gunn, Carolines Bikini is a swooning portrait of courtly love - in a modern world not celebrated for its restraint and abstraction. Ready. Steady. Go!