In the fold : a novelUpplaga 1

"The Hanburys of Egypt Hill are the last word in bohemian living - or so they like to think. Their parties are famous, their relationships confusing, their bravado immense. To Michael arriving at his college roommate's house on the hill for a birthday party, they represent the prospect of relief from the strictures of conformity, and an enfolding exuberance to which he feels irresistibly attracted. That one evening in their charismatic presence has lingered in his heart and in his memory." "Some years later, reeling from the consequences of his marriage to a beautiful, difficult woman, Michael is invited to visit the Hanburys, and his illusions about their world quickly unravel. For one thing, he's been asked more to help with the messy business of lambing than to get reacquainted - and nothing shatters the illusion of pastoral elegance more than a night in the company of pregnant ewes, unless it's the ungainly dogs who seem to have the run of the place or the alarming meals that emerge from the dark recesses of the ancient kitchen. But more urgently, Egypt Hill is being threatened by development: the family is being riven by jealousy and deceit; and as the days pass, the Hanbury myth begins to crumble under the weight of its own dark history." "In the Fold is a story of modern manners and past offenses, of public morality and private property, and of how we can be undone by a simple yearning to belong."--BOOK JACKET.