The Village Wit — Mark Beyer

Richard Bentley has power over women. His bookshop holds power in its stories. And a Heath-on-the-Wold woman wants her own power. What is Penelope White willing to do to get such power? This is the story of THE VILLAGE WIT. American Richard Bentley settles in rural England, looking for the contented life of a bookshop keeper and some fun with the local women. Heath-on-the-Wold seems the ideal place to get lost in work and forget the woman who fell out his life with the affliction of "marital boredom." Then Bentley hires Peggy White, a mid-forties townswoman who seems his match in sass and intellect. Soon, the rules of attraction open a new chapter in their lives. Who wants power? Who holds the power? THE VILLAGE WIT follows Richard and Peggy's often humorous and sometimes dark odyssey through village life, love's fall, sexual politics, and that place where memory and modern love-power-passion intersect. In the tradition of Iris Murdoch, Richard Ford, Margaret Atwood, and Norman Rush, THE VILLAGE WIT explores the effects of loss and the shadows found in passion's blood-red corners.