LEAVING SOPHIE DEAN

The charming story of a woman who remakes her fate when her husband leaves her for another woman.

Sophie and Adam are in a dead-end marriage, exhausted by the demands of a house, two young children, his demanding career as an architect and her frustrations as a stay-at-home mom. Boredom and dissatisfaction from both are slowly seeping into the marriage, but while Sophie is stuck with the children, Adam turns to a fellow architect (the attractive, single, fiercely ambitious Valerie) for comfort and escape. Months pass until Valerie, tired of seeing Adam only on the side, gives him an ultimatum - her or me. Adam chooses Valerie. He goes home and tells his wife he's leaving, but, like good (soon to be out the door) husbands should, he will pay more than enough in child support and will leave her the house. And here is where things get interesting. Sophie turns everything on its head, agrees with Adam that, yes, the kids should have stability, yes, staying in the house is important for them, but, she says, "You stay. I'm leaving." And suddenly, our spurned wife is setting off on a new, more fulfilling life of her own. Our unhappy husband feels even more tied down with two kids, a house, a job, a soon-to-be ex-wife AND a now-unhappy mistress who never thought her ultimatum would leave her caring for someone else's kids - in the suburbs. How these three find themselves and a way forward as a family - or not - provides the heart and humor of the book. Alexandra Whitaker is the daughter of Rodney Whitaker, a.k.a. Trevanian, from whom she learned to write in the course of a happy and fruitful apprenticeship that included collaborating on his last two novels. As a child she lived all over the United States and in Europe, a perpetual "new girl" and a keen language learner. She has written for children and for film, also short fiction. She lives with her husband and child in Spain and France.