Village Story

Mrs. Ethelburger, who sat down when she wanted to think, had been classed as very intelligent when a girl, but seeing her in this ramshackle house, surrounded by her noisy family (as though there were not enough children about, there were photos of them all over the mantelpiece), people had wondered: hadn't she rather thrown herself away?

Celia Buckmaster's sharply funny, brilliantly characterized first novel revolves around two discontented wives. Mrs. Noyce, at the manor, is a painter whos...