Mary Louise marries an older man to escape the boredom of her rural lifestyle. To escape his ineptitude as a husband and the hatefulness of his sisters with whom they share a business and household, Mary Louise becomes increasingly enmeshed in a fantasy world built upon her childhood affections for a sickly cousin. Trevor employs two alternating chronologies, one describing her increasing isolation and the other her return to a changed world. This novel was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and the volume containing this novel and My House in Umbria, entitled Two Lives, was named to the New York Times Editor's Choice list in 1991. I rate it at 8 out of 10 stars. ( )