Book Rec of the Day 2/25/2007

LITERARY FICTION

Is three a crowd or is it just right? Salley Vickers ponders this question in a smart, literate novel that offers fresh new thoughts on love, forgiveness, and getting on with life after a crisis. The novel starts conventionally enough, with a love triangle. But the rest is utterly original, brilliantly combining a ghost story with a gentle comedy of manners. Vickers’s voice is irresistible, and her story would make for a lively reading group discussion.

INSTANCES OF THE NUMBER 3, by Salley Vickers (Picador, 2003)