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Synopsis

Richard's life is unravelling: his beautiful wife, Valerie, is having an affair, his son Maxence may (or may not) be mentally disturbed, and the idyllic life he'd hoped for when they moved to Provence has become more nightmare than paradise. Suddenly, a routine trip to Africa to sell pharmaceuticals is more than he can handle and his life starts to implode as he realizes that the idea of a life full of that love he has cherished is a mere illusion.

For Richard and Valerie's neighbour Rachel, a trip to Africa also leads to feelings of confusion and doubt. Now Rachel, and her husband Jeff, as well as Richard and Valerie, are left groping for the things that once defined them. In this bold and tender story, both families find themselves desperately seeking the answer to one question: just what is the idea of love - and can it save them?

But for the children in the story, the awkward unsettling Maxence and angelic little Maud, the idea of love is much simpler...

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Reviews

Interview

What is The Idea of Love about?
This is a book about the different kinds of love - sexual love, romantic love, and altruism or 'charity'. And about the damage we do with them. The book deals with the 'idea of love' most common in our media - the imperative to be loved (rather than 'to love'). The casualties in the book are the children. Each of the four lovers in the book is seeking love as in 'being loved' when the book begins. They are two couples, neighbours, in the South of France, an American, and Englishwoman, a French woman and an Englishman - all there to live the 'good life'. They find a party waiting for them with other like minded middle class families - Dutch and English. Two of the four lovers go to Africa with Western mandates - one for charity, one for commerce, and both of them find themselves impotent there. Seeing their home lives with fresh eyes on their return, disaster strikes and almost as if in a puff of smoke both of the homes fold and one of the lovers loses everything over night, including his mind. Looking closer still, they can see there is a lack of love in their homes and that one of the children is very disturbed. In particular, one man, Richard loses overnight his wife, his home, his son and his job and begins to unravel. This book has something to say about the ways in which men are affected by divorce and the great risk to their wellbeing. This is a book about mental illness and its relationship with the longing for unconditional love. As with all my books, there is a great deal of black humour in the book.

What are you reading at the moment?
I read and re-read “Everyman’ by Philip Roth as a textbook on clean good writing. And similarly, ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ by John Coetzee. I am also reading Philip Hensher ‘The Northern Clemency’ and Nick Laird’s poetry

Which author do you most admire?
John Coetzee, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Saramago, Garcia Marquez, Ivan Klima, Milan Kundera (Living)

What is your greatest fear?
The death of one of my children

How would you like to be remembered?
As the greatest writer of my generation. Why else write?

Have you ever done something that you've really regretted?
Yes. Regret is a firm hand on conscience. I revisit these things in my books as a way of chastising myself. It’s why my bad characters are believable, and pitiable.

What's your favourite book?
‘The End of the Affair’ by Graham Greene perhaps, but there are so many…

Who (or what) do you turn to in a crisis?
My mother and father

What makes you angry?
Bad manners and condescension

Which foreign country would you most like to visit?
Any country in South/Latin America – it's the region I have never been to

How do you relax?
In the bath, reading

What are you most proud of?
Keeping dinner coming. Making the birthday cakes. The practical side of love

Where do you write?
I prepare my old bank desk for a proper writer to use in my study then move elsewhere. I like to be at large, and so I sit in my conservatory at my laptop squinting in the discomfort of sunlight, smoking.

Which is your favourite city and why?
New York. Its methodological streets and high octane neighbourhoods haunt my dreams.

If you had one wish what would it be?
To die working. But not anytime soon.

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