Zoo Time / Howard Jacobson

Novelist Guy Ableman is in thrall to his vivacious wife Vanessa, a strikingly beautiful redhead, contrary, highly strung and blazingly angry. The trouble is, he is no less in thrall to her alluring mother, Poppy. More like sisters than mother and daughter, they come as a pair, a blistering presence that destroys Guys peace of mind, suggesting the wildest stories but making it impossible for him to concentrate long enough to write any of them.