Elizabeth Jolley 
Sugar Mother 

'Her warmest novel, her most moving and possibly the best introduction to her fiction’New York Times Book Review Edwin Page, an aging but handsome university professor, is married to Cecilia, a young obstetrician who delivers babies every day but doesn’t have children of her own. When work takes Cecilia overseas, Edwin begins an unlikely friendship with 22-year-old Leila and her mother who have moved in next door. As each month passes, Cecilia seems further away, and Edwin’s desire for a child meets little resistance from Leila, who is perfectly willing to play surrogate mother – in more ways than one.The Sugar Mother explores the way the many little impacts of distance, separation and change can gather force and move people in unexpected directions. It is a delicate and disturbing story of self-deception and secret hopes.