Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple – young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment she walked into his mother’s grocery store in Baltimore, he was smitten, and in the heat of World War II fervour, they marry in haste. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counter-culture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayers of later years, we watch their lives unspool and see the consequences of their very mismatched marriage.OVER A MILLION ANNE TYLER BOOKS SOLDShes changed my perception on life Anna ChancellorOne of my favourite authors Liane MoriartyShe spins gold’ Elizabeth BuchanAnne Tyler has no peer Anita ShreveMy favourite writer, and the best line-and-length novelist in the world Nick HornbyA masterly author Sebastian FaulksTyler is not merely good, she is wickedly good John UpdikeI love Anne Tyler Anita BrooknerHer fiction has strength of vision, originality, freshness, unconquerable humour Eudora Welty