Cautery

Fantasies, or are they premonitions, of a great wave, an impending apocalypse, threaten to swamp a young woman trapped in a slowly curdling relationship. From the outside it all looks good – the casually elegant apartment, the cocktail parties, the impressive, creative friends – but for all her supposed freedom, her unhappiness means she’s not living up to her side of the bargain. Why, everyone asks, is this not enough? Four hundred years earlier, formidable, irascible Deborah Moody marries...