Excerpt from Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Tonight, however, marks the end of their quarantine. The Murphys have invited them over to Villa America and it will be the first time this vacation that the unhappy trio has been in the company of friends. To Hadley, the party feels both exciting and dreadful: something has happened in the villa that nobody else has seen, as if someone has wet the mattress and not owned up to the fast-cooling spot in the middle of the bedclothes.

Hadley climbs back into bed. The sheet is tense around Ernest; she tries to pull it back so that he'll think she hasn't yet left, but he has the cotton bunched in his fist. She kisses the top of his ear and whispers, "You've stolen the bedding."

Ernest doesn't answer but scoops her toward him. In Paris he likes to be up early and in his studio by nine. But in Antibes these embraces happen many times daily, as if Ernest and Hadley are in the first flush of romance again, even while both of them know this summer might be the end of things. Lying next to him she wonders how it is she has lost him, although perhaps that is not quite the right phrase, since she has not lost him, not yet. Rather Fife and Hadley wait and watch as if they are lining up for the last seat on a bus.

"Let's go for a swim."

"It's too early, Hash." Ernest's eyes are still closed though there is a flicker behind the lids. She wonders if he's weighing both of them up now that he is awake. Should it be wife? Or mistress? Mistress, or wife? The brain's whisper begins.

From Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood. Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Random House. Copyright © Naomi Wood, 2014.