A wickedly funny debut novel--a black comedy with a generous heart that explores the power of imagination and reading--about a woman who tries to use fiction to find her way to happiness.Victoria is unhappily married to an ambitious and controlling lawyer consumed with his career. Burdened with overbearing in-laws, a boring dead-end job she can't seem to leave, and a best friend who doesn't seem to understand her, Victoria finds solace from the daily grind in her beloved books and the stories she makes up in her head. One day, in a favorite cafe, she notices an attractive man reading the same talked-about bestselling novel that she is reading. A woman yearning for her own happy ending, Victoria is sure it's fate. The handsome book lover must be her soul mate.There's only one small problem. Victoria is already married. Frustrated, and desperate to change her life, Victoria retreats to the dark places in her mind and thinks back to all the stories she's ever read in hopes of finding a solution. She begins to fantasize about nocturnal trysts with cafe man, and imaginative ways (poisoned pickles were an inspired choice in Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres) of getting rid of the dread husband.It's all just harmless fantasy born of Victoria's fevered imagination and her books--until, one night, fiction and reality blur and suddenly it seems Victoria is about to get everything she's wished for . . . .
Victoria wasn't used to discussing the books she read with Eric. It felt too intimate, somehow. He didn't exist in her world of books. If he had wanted to know her at any point in their marriage, all he would have had to do was ask her about what she was reading. This might be the first time he had done so, and it was too late for such chitchat.
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