A Prodigal Child: A Novel

A novel about family and class restrictions by the Man Booker Prize–winning author of This Sporting Life and Saville. The Morley family's new five-bedroom house on Spinney Moor Road represents a significant improvement in their circumstances. Arthur Morley, a farmer who frequently returns home intoxicated, competes with his frugal and prudish wife Sarah for their sons' affection. Their younger son Bryan becomes dissatisfied with his current life and seeks something more. He finds an opportunity when he moves in with childless Fay Corrigan at her affluent town home during the week while attending a prep school she finances. However, Bryan increasingly feels torn between his new urban existence and his family's rural world. His growing jealous-erotic obsession with the much-older Fay leads to actions with long-lasting repercussions. Set between the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II, the novel explores adolescent longing, family bonds, and the constraints imposed by social class.