Mark Beyer The Village Wit

Annotation

American Richard Bentley settles in rural England, looking for the contented life of a bookshop keeper and some fun with the local women. His wife of fourteen years left him out of "marital boredom," so Heath-on-the-Wold seems the ideal place to get lost in work and forget the past. Bentley then hires Peggy White, a mid-forties townswoman who seems his match in sass and intellect. Soon, the rules of attraction open a new chapter in their lives. THE VILLAGE WIT follows Richard and Peggy's often humorous and sometimes dark odyssey through village life, love's fall, sexual politics, and that place where memory and modern love intersect. In the tradition of Iris Murdoch, Richard Ford, Margaret Atwood, and Norman Rush, THE VILLAGE WIT explores the shadows found in love's corners: betrayal, loss and longing; and the importance to try to love again.