This collection of four novellas includes ‘The Grandmothers’, on which ‘Adoration’, a major film starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, is based. (Please note, this collection was previously published as ‘The Grandmothers’.)

‘The Grandmothers’ is the story of two women who meet as schoolgirls and, in later life, live next-door to each other as neighbours. When their marriages collapse, each finds herself infatuated with the other’s son. This is a searingly intimate portrait of an unconventional extended family and the lengths to which people will go to find happiness and love. It is a ruthless dissection of the veneer of middle-class conventions that manages to be at once universal and heartbreakingly personal.

With ‘The Grandmothers’, as well as the other novellas in this collection – ‘Victoria and the Staveneys’, ‘The Reason for It’ and ‘A Love Child’ – Doris Lessing proves once again that she is one of our most valuable and insightful living authors.