One Sunday afternoon deputy District Attorney Bert Cousins shows up at a christening party uninvited. Before evening falls he has kissed Beverly Keating, his host's wife - a brief romantic encounter that will forever change the fate of two families. A precise exploration of guilt, betrayal and our inability to escape the past and Ann Patchett's most astonishing work to date. The new novel by the Orange Prize-winning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder.