A heartbreakingly moving and hilariously funny novel about marriage, parenting, love, desire and betrayal.

‘Captivating’ Ruth Jones, author of Us Three

‘Tremendous’ William Boyd author of Any Human Heart

‘Funny, wry, unsettling’ Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall

Emily should be happy. She has a nice husband (even if they rarely speak to each other, let alone sleep in the same bed), two little boys she loves (even if a full night’s sleep is a distant memory) – and now, a brand-new house in which they can live out all of the bourgeois fantasies she knows she should be ashamed of. But still she aches for something more.

Enter Alathea and Elliott, their new neighbours, and also parents of two young boys. Alathea is intimidatingly confident and beautiful, but also disarmingly open and friendly. And Elliott … Elliott is intriguing. Dishevelled, talented, charming and a little lost, he seems as fascinated by Emily as she is by him, and soon their friendship has reached an intensity neither of them seem able to control.

As riotously funny as it is painfully moving, this is a novel about disappointment and yearning; about parenting and growing up; and the search for love, meaning and connection.

In The Answer to Everything, Kennard masterfully blends comedy and heartache, painting a vivid picture of a family facing the prospect of divorce and a romantic entanglement that complicates their lives. This top-rated fiction is as much a commentary on the complexities of love and family, as it is a hilarious take on life's unexpected twists and turns.

For fans of Iris Murdoch (Under The Net), Audrey Magee (The Undertaking), Damon Galgut (The Good Doctor), Rose Tremain (Absolutely and Forever), and Mary Ruefle (The Most of It).