A married novelist is swept into an affair and ponders what happiness means to her
Rating: 4 Stars
“I started looking at my girlfriends, and listening to anecdotes tossed about at parties nd realized that women become reckless in their 40s,” says The Perfect Happiness author Santa Montefiore. “They’ve dedicated pretty much twenty years to their husbands and children and suddenly they wake up one day and think… What about me? What do I want?”
In The Perfect Happiness, Angelica Lariviere is a best-selling children’s author, wife and mother who lives in London with her family. At a dinner party she meets Jack Meyer. When she goes on a book tour she and Jack meet in Johannesburg and start an affair. Jack has kept a devastating secret from her. Can she go back to London and her family? Does she tell her husband? What will make her happy?
“A couple of years ago I was at a dinner in London and a very attractive married man chatted me up,” says Montefiore. “He later found me through my author website and started emailing me. I don’t need much to give me an idea for a story. That started me off.”
“Fortunately, I didn’t have to do any research at all,” says Montefiore. “Angelica’s life is very similar to my own…barring the affair, of course! I live in London. I’ve been to South Africa and spent time on a beautiful vineyard. My cousin went to stay on a vineyard while I was writing the book so I set her the task of doing some research. She came back with photos and answers to all my questions.”
In the UK, The Perfect Happiness is called The Affair. That’s has sparked some confusion. The book contains quotes at the top of each chapter from the imaginary book In Search of The Perfect Happiness. “I have had a lot of letters requesting where it can be bought,” says Montefiore. “Those who have heard that The Perfect Happiness is coming out in the U.S. think it’s another book entirely! I might write In Search of The Perfect Happiness”.
As The Perfect Happiness unfolds you’re drawn into Angelica’s world. Whether you approve of her affair or not, you feel for her and what she goes through. This book makes you think about what your perfect happiness is and what you want it to be.
Montefiore is currently writing her eleventh novel, called The Artist in Residence. It’s set in Tuscany in the 70s and the southern coast of England in the present. Santa Montefiore lives in London. She was born in Winchester, Hampshire and is the sister of socialite and columnist Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. Her family have been close friends with the Prince of Wales for decades. She is married to writer and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore and has two children, Lily and Sasha. She has a Facebook fan page set up by a reader called The Santa Montefiore Appreciation Group. Her official websites are www.santamontefioreauthor.com and www.santamontefiore.co.uk.
The Perfect Happiness: A Novel by Santa Montefiore
Trade Paperback, 416 pages, Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (June 8, 2010)
Language: English, ISBN: 9781439183465
[adrotate group=”8″]
