After twenty years of marriage, Eleanor finds herself alone — separated from her husband, surrounded by grown-up children who have lives of their own, and expected to somehow begin again. But freedom is not as simple as she imagined. Her mother and mother-in-law watch and judge, her children drift in and out, and a succession of self-interested suitors offer companionship that comes with its own complications.

As Eleanor tries to work out who she is when she is no longer a wife or a mother first, The Home turns the idea of domestic life inside out. Funny, uncomfortable and quietly devastating, Penelope Mortimer's novel explores loneliness, desire, family, ageing and the strange, exhilarating possibility of starting over.

Written with Mortimer's trademark wit and unsentimental precision, The Home is a fiercely modern novel about a woman discovering that leaving home may be easier than finding somewhere — and someone — to belong to.

Penelope Mortimer (1918–1999) was a Welsh-born English novelist, journalist and biographer. She wrote nine novels, including the acclaimed The Pumpkin Eater, as well as memoirs, short stories, and a biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Her sharp, spare writing frequently examined marriage, family life and the constraints placed on women.