Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift: a perfect small tragedy

From the Booker Award winner: a luminous, profoundly moving work of fiction. It begins with an afternoon tryst in 1924 between a servant girl and the young man of the neighboring house. But then opens to reveal the whole life of a remarkable woman.

Twenty-two year old Jane Fairchild, orphaned at birth, has worked as a maid at one English country estate since she was sixteen. And for almost all of those years she has been the secret lover to Paul Sheringham. On an unseasonably warm March afternoon, Jane and Paul will make love for the last time. Because Paul is about to be married.

As the narrative moves back and forth from 1924 to the end of the century, what we know and understand about Jane is a story of profound self-discovery. Graham Swift has created an emotionally soaring and deeply affecting work of fiction.