A villa in summer

To look at Andrew and Emily Addams one would think there was nothing unusual about their situation. They lived with their two children in a rather overcrowded apartment in London, but were comfortable enough, if one didn't take into account their minor irritations and frustrations. However, they were delighted when their cousin offered them his cottage in the country to live in, and they gladly accepted his offer.
Everything would change now, they thought--and it did. Country life was just the thing. But why did Andrew and Emily start to grow, in subtle ways, farther and farther apart? Why did their daughter Edith, at her new school run by the strange Thompson couple, seem remote and unhappy? What was it in the country air and in the cottage and in the blighted neighbors that brought about an awful--and almost fatal--change in the Addams's family relationship?
In a brilliant first novel, acclaimed by critics in England and a choice of the Book Society there, Penelope Mortimer has written a character stufy of great subtlety and penetration. Mixed with her remarkable talent for delineating people, Mrs. Mortimer shows a rare and accurate understanding for the frustrations and petty mishaps which can, in life as in art, lead to completely unforseen consequences.