From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Pursuit of Happiness and The Moment comes a poignant and profound American love story. Laura is in the throes of a midlife crisis. Her twenty year marriage has gone stale; her husband has become a stranger to her since losing his job eighteen months ago. So when she is invited to a conference in Boston, she jumps at the opportunity. In the hotel lobby, she gets talking to Richard Coleman, an insurance salesman in his fifties. Initially, Laura writes him off as grey and uninspiring. But when a chance meeting brings them together again that evening, Laura begins to discover a smarter, more animated person beneath the salesman's fa ade. It is this brief encounter, of two lonely people desperate for a connection, which forces Laura to reflect on her past and re-imagine her future. In the days that follow, she must make a huge choice u and face the consequences which are both delightful and terrifying.