This Picture of You

… a weighty book about important things, expertly told and very moving’ - Malcolm Knox, author of The Life

Martin and Maggie have been together for thirty-seven years. He is a judge and she is a painter. They have a high-flying lawyer son and a much loved grandson. Life is good, comfortable, familiar.

But one day Martin leaves a family lunch and takes his son’s car, driving to a suburb miles away, where he has an accident. No one knows why he was there, not even Martin himself, whose mind starts unravelling. It’s clear to Maggie that something from Martin’s past is troubling him greatly, and she resolves to find out what it was that drew him there, to that particular street.

As Maggie attempts to piece together the events of that day, Martin takes refuge in what he can remember, regaling his son with his now-vivid memories of one night in New York more than forty years ago, the night he and Maggie met. As Martin’s mind spirals inward, the fabric that has been holding his lifetime of secrets at bay gradually starts to tear, and in the process we also see that the son keeps very similar secrets to his father’s. Nothing is what it seems in this searing story of love and betrayal, and a family coming apart at the seams.

This Picture of You is urgent, gripping, insightful and intoxicating, an unforgettable journey into the heart of a family and the secrets that threaten to tear it apart.