Adultery

Sarah Robertson is the editor of the Canadian Book Review Annual.

Daniel Fielding may be the unluckiest man in the history of adultery. At
the Frankfurt Book Fair, the middle-aged, happily married, and
hitherto-faithful editor stumbles into an affair with Denise Crowder, a
vivacious, much-younger colleague. Days later, on a side trip to Devon,
Denise is abducted and murdered by a deranged ex-prisoner after he
observes them having sex in their rented car.

Events following the senseless murder unfold swiftly, remorselessly.
Fielding identifies the body; responds to police questions; breaks the
news to his wife, Claire, and Denise’s mother; accompanies his dead
lover on a flight back to Toronto; and attends Denise’s viewing and
funeral—all the while fending off a media feeding frenzy and trying to
effect the beginnings of a reconciliation with his wife and daughter.

There’s not a wasted word or false note struck in this quietly
powerful, beautifully observed novel by the author of the
multi-award-winning Clara Callan (2001). As he reviews his life and
wrestles with issues of guilt, responsibility, and forgiveness, Fielding
engages our sympathies, never losing sight of the fact that his affair
and the unspeakable crime it gave rise to has altered, even ruined,
lives forever.

One of Fielding’s authors has produced a manuscript predicting that
water shortages will be a major source of global conflict for future
generations. The events in Adultery affect a mere handful of
individuals, but the fallout, for them, is no less catastrophic.