The Photograph by Penelope Lively was published in 2003 and I loved it. I’m becoming quite a fan of Penelope Lively and it’s beyond me why this one doesn’t seem to have won any awards.

Glyn is a widower and an academic who in the past also had a successful career fronting popular TV documentaries. He has never thrown any of his writing out, old lecture notes and scripts are all stored in a big cupboard half-way up the stairs. While looking for something in the cupboard he discovers a photograph, it’s a group photo of old friends but in the background he can see his now dead wife Kath and she has her back to the camera. She’s holding hands with her sister’s husband and it’s obvious that the pair have been having an affair.

Kath and her sister Elaine who was six years older than her, had been orphaned when their mother died when Kath was just sixteen years old. Elaine was already starting out on her career and never gave a thought for the younger girl who had been so close to their mother. The fact that Kath only ever had temporary jobs was seen as her own fault, but she never had the chance to study for anything.

Glyn becomes obsessed, wondering if she had been having affairs with multiple men throughout their marriage. He ends up tracking down old friends and work colleagues of Kath’s, trying to get information from them. From things that they say it seems that the Kath that he knew was quite different from the one that they knew. Yes, Kath was beautiful and had poise and charm, but some people had picked up on her sadness and her beauty was seen as a liability to her. Near strangers knew more about Kath than her closest family did.

When Glyn informs Kath’s sister Elaine that her husband had an affair with Kath it results in meltdown within that marriage as you would expect, but all involved think back to the times when they had been too busy for Kath, they had no time to listen to her as they were all wrapped up in their various careers. Elaine is a very successful garden designer, very well off and for years she has been supporting her husband after his once successful publishing company had folded.

The photograph has started a series of videos playing inside people’s heads as they recall incidents in their past lives and realise that things weren’t at all as they assumed them to be. They wish they had given her time and listened to her. I think we’ve probably all had that experience at some point.

The Photograph is a sad but thought provoking read, I gave it a five on Goodreads.

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