Graham Swift

"It's the summer of 1959, and something magical can be witnessed at the end of the pier in beach town Brighton, England. Jack Robbins, Ronnie Deane, and Evie White are performing in a seaside variety show, starring as Jack Robinson the compere comedian, and The Great Pablo and Eve: a magic act. By the end of the summer, Evie's glinting engagement ring will be flung to the bottom of the ocean and one of the trifecta will vanish forever. All three friends...

"A novel set in the Devon countryside in England, in which a man, the son of a dairy farmer, has to cope with the recent death of his brother, a soldier in Iraq; repair his relationship with his wife; and cope with the complicated legacy of his family's past"--

Former London police detective George Webb, "booted off the force" for trying in all the wrong ways to put away the right man, is now a private investigator specializing in matrimonial cases. He has crossed a line with a client, wholly upending his own life. By the close of this remarkable novel, which unfolds over the course of one day in George's life and mind, we will know him intimately from his childhood secrets to his fall from grace as a cop....

The story takes place on Mother's Day in 1924. Fir Mr. and Mrs. Evan give their housekeeper, Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), the day off, as the couple are set to go to their neighbor's house to celebrate his engagement. The truth is Jane and the neighbor, Paul, have been having an affair for many years.

Follows the lives of four men, covering nearly a half-century of these South London buddies lives, from their adopted pub to Margate Pier. Through a series of flashbacks, they take you on a journey of a lifetime. Along with them are the ashes of Jack, their larger-than-life friend, whose deathbed request sends them on their way.