The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay

"Gillies writes magnificently on everything she touches." - Sunday Times

"A delicate depiction of life, love and possibly madness... Moving and surprising" - Daily Express

Nina Findlay, alluring, accomplished, deluded, always the heroine of her own life, has found an irresistible safety in being adored by two men, brothers she's known since childhood. But when her sister-in-law becomes gravely ill, the triangle that Nina's depended on becomes catastrophically unstable.

The life she's known begins rapidly to unravel, and odd things begin to happen which those around her insist are all in her mind. Separated from her husband, she goes on holiday to a tiny Greek island, the honeymoon island of 25 years earlier, and is involved in a serious road accident. There, while recuperating, she becomes close to her doctor, who's also on the point of divorce. A new relationship seems possible - but what's real in the situation, and what's imagined?

Pressed in at all sides by other people's truths, how can Nina be sure of identifying her own? A diary that was her mother's proves to be a turning point. Perhaps romantic love is always a kind of undiagnosed madness. Face to face with the facts behind her assumptions, the time has come for Nina to unravel the taut knot of her past.

Andrea Gillies won both The Wellcome Prize 2009 and The Orwell Prize 2010 for her first book, Keeper, which was prompted by living with someone with Alzheimer's. The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay is her second novel. The White Lie, about a landed Scottish family determined to keep a dark secret, was published to critical acclaim in 2012. Find out more about the books at , and follow her on Twitter, @andreagillies.

All her life Nina Findlay has been in a love triangle with two Italian brothers, Paolo whom she married, and Luca who remained her best friend. Now, Nina faces a future alone-separated from Paolo and estranged from Luca, she escapes to the tiny Greek island where she honeymooned 25 years earlier. After a collision with a bus, while convalescing in the hospital, she finds herself telling her story to an eagerly attentive doctor, and before long she's questioning everything she thought she once knew. Like Gillies's previous novel, The White Lie , this is a work of provocative intelligence, which carries the reader through multiple layers of deception and revelation, and challenges perceptions about love, honesty and betrayal.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.