Harold Steptoe
New Member
A plea for help, folks..
A couple of years ago, when I was still living in the States (I'm now back in England) I got an excellent book from the library. The central character, who has been unfaithful to his wife for several years, decides to end his affair, come clean to his wife, and hope that she forgives him so that they can start afresh with no lies between them.
They are about to fly off on a vacation, so what he does is write his wife a heartfelt letter and hide it in one of her bags. The idea being that once they are on vacation and she unpacks, she'll find the letter, read it, and then they can deal with the situation in a setting away from home.
However; he is supposed to meet his wife and young daughter at the airport, but is running late and is going to miss the flight. He calls his wife and tells them to catch the original flight, and he will catch a later flight and meet them at the other end. So his wife and daughter board the flight.... which crashes, killing everyone on board.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the letter that he wrote to his wife is found in the wreckage of the plane, finds its way into the hands of the media, and a search for the evil, heartless person who wrote it begins...
The book is very darkly humourous, somewhat strange and disturbing, and also very, very sad. Something today reminded me of this book, and I'd love to get hold of a copy so I can read it again. Unfortunately, I can't remember either the title of the book OR the name of the author!
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
A couple of years ago, when I was still living in the States (I'm now back in England) I got an excellent book from the library. The central character, who has been unfaithful to his wife for several years, decides to end his affair, come clean to his wife, and hope that she forgives him so that they can start afresh with no lies between them.
They are about to fly off on a vacation, so what he does is write his wife a heartfelt letter and hide it in one of her bags. The idea being that once they are on vacation and she unpacks, she'll find the letter, read it, and then they can deal with the situation in a setting away from home.
However; he is supposed to meet his wife and young daughter at the airport, but is running late and is going to miss the flight. He calls his wife and tells them to catch the original flight, and he will catch a later flight and meet them at the other end. So his wife and daughter board the flight.... which crashes, killing everyone on board.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the letter that he wrote to his wife is found in the wreckage of the plane, finds its way into the hands of the media, and a search for the evil, heartless person who wrote it begins...
The book is very darkly humourous, somewhat strange and disturbing, and also very, very sad. Something today reminded me of this book, and I'd love to get hold of a copy so I can read it again. Unfortunately, I can't remember either the title of the book OR the name of the author!
Does this sound familiar to anyone?