On a midsummer's evening in the English countryside, the Palmer family is playing a dinner-party game, a subtle variation of "What if ...?" But the game quickly gives way to the more pressing problem of the Palmers' eccentric mother, Frieda, an eminent author who has fled her children to take residence in a remote, crumbling old hotel by the sea. What is to become of her? Why has she disappeared? Has she gone mad? Margaret Drabble explores the ever-puzzling questions of family relationships in a dazzling, wickedly gothic tale that is witty, moving, and utterly original.
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