The Essence of the Thing
Synopsis
Nicola’s problems begin when she is told by her partner, Jonathan that they should part. She goes out to the off-licence and returns to find a stranger in her living room. The stranger looks and talks like Jonathan, but Jonathan had always been predictable. Where was the man she loved?
Author Biography
St John was born in 1941 in a suburb of Sydney. She wrote four novels in her short writing life. She was 52 when the first, The Women in Black, was published in 1993. The other three followed soon after, and form a loose trilogy set in contemporary London; Notting Hill, where she lived most of her adult life, particularly favoured. The Essence of the Thing was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Madeleine St John died in London in June 2006.
