Douglas Kennedy — A Special Relationship

Random House (UK) 2004 Paperback, 432pp. This is serious popular fiction -- a true page-turner -- about an American woman in London whose entire life is turned upside down, and London becomes a very foreign place. This is the story of Sally Goodchild, a thirty-seven-year-old American, who, after nearly two decades as a highly independent journalist, suddenly finds herself pregnant and in London, married to an English foreign correspondent, Tony Thompson, whom she met while they were both on assignment in Cairo. From the outset, Sally’s relationship with both Tony and London is an uneasy one -- especially as she finds her husband and his city to be far more foreign than she imagined. But her adjustment problems are soon overshadowed by a troubled pregnancy. When she goes into premature labour, there are doubts whether her child will survive unscathed. And then, out of nowhere, Sally is hit by an appalling post-natal depression -- a descent into a temporary, but very personal hell, which even sees her articulating a homicidal thought against her baby. However, when she does manage to extricate herself from this desperate dark wood, she finds herself in a fresh new nightmare -- as she discovers that everything can be taken down and used against you…especially by a spouse who now considers you an unfit mother and wants to bar you from ever seeing your child again. (ISBN: 9780091793531). Very Good.