Thomas and Mary have been married for 30 years. They have two children, a dog, and a house in the suburbs. But after years of drifting apart, things—finally—come to a head. In this love story in reverse, Tim Parks recounts what happens when youthful devotion has long given way to dog walking, separate bed times, and tensions over who left the fridge door open. Lurching from comedy to tragedy, via dependence, cold re-examination, tenderness, and betrayal, Thomas and Mary is a fiercely intimate chronicle of a marriage—capturing the offshoots of pain sent through an entire family, when the couple at its heart decide it’s all over.

Tim Parks is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Italian Neighbours, Italian Education, and Italian Ways. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Prize, The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the John Florio Prize, and the Italo Calvino Prize.