"The sense of the author at play dominates" in this short story collection as the award-winning author looks at love, lies, mortality and seduction ( The New York Times ). A bored faculty wife looking for a fling discovers something more illuminating than sex; a jaded writer who eavesdrops on a pair of hopeful lovers feels compelled to relieve them of their foolish ideals and ambitions; a widow and a divorcée commiserate in mourning for their lost men, only to rejoice in their freedom after two bottles of blanc de blancs; a young man devises a test of true love—to find a woman who won't laugh at the absurd circumstances of his father's death; and in the title story, an oblivious young bride honeymooning in Antibes encourages a friendship between a gay couple and her adventurous and handsome new husband. Praise for Graham Greene "A storyteller of genius." —Evelyn Waugh, award-winning author of Brideshead Revisited "In a class by himself . . . The ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety." —William Golding, Nobel Prize–winning author of Lord of the Flies "One of the finest writers of any language." — The Washington Post
