{
    "id": 385590,
    "slug": "small-pleasures",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "Small pleasures",
    "subtitle": "Clare Chambers",
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "The 21st century heir to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Taylor. Small Pleasures is both gripping and a huge delight' Amanda Craig, author of The Lie of the Land<br></br><br></br>1957, south-east suburbs of London. <br></br>Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape.<br></br> <br></br>When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen is now a friend, and her quirky and charming daughter Margaret a sort of surrogate child. And Jean doesn't mean to fall in love with Gretchen's husband, Howard, but Howard surprises her with his dry wit, his intelligence and his kindness - and when she does fall, she falls hard. <br></br><br></br>But he is married, and to her friend - who is also the subject of the story she is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness...<br></br><br></br>But there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable.",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": null,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2020-07-09",
    "publication_date_latest": "2020-07-30",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781474613897",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
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    "rating_average": null,
    "ratings_distribution": {
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    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:35:46+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-01T00:32:27+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4191,
        "slug": "orion",
        "name": "Orion",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:08:37+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:10:40+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "300",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:35:46+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:35:46+00:00"
        }
    ],
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}