From the Orange Prize-winning and Booker Prize-shortlisted author, a hymn to the pleasures and pains, and even the raptures of an unspectacular life.

Fay is a folklorist whose passion for mermaids provides her with a sense of continuity with the past. Tom is the host of a late-night radio show. Married and divorced three time before his fortieth birthday, he nevertheless hopes that next time around he will at last make the right choice. For both Fay and Tom, falling in love at first sight is at once an immense surprise and the cause of not a little trepidation.