Booker Prizewinning novelist Penelope Livelys latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked "DONT OPEN DESTROY." But Kaths husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secretswithin marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.

Propelled by the authors signature mastery of narrative and psychology, The Photograph is Lively at her very best, the dazzling climax to all she has written before.