A picturesque community in postwar England comes together when it counts in this witty, moving novel in the "beloved" Barsetshire series ( Publishers Weekly).

Edith Graham is still single when she returns from America to visit Mrs. Morland, and there's no shortage of interested men—until three suitors find each other such good company that they start socializing together and ignoring her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Morland has received a marriage proposal herself and needs to let the dear man down gently. But while these day-to-day problems preoccupy the two women and their Barsetshire neighbors, they will soon be united by a poignant loss . . .

"Here are the familiar cross-county conversations, the disentangling of relationships, the good pieces of meddling and the criticisms and comments that embroider this ever-unfolding panorama of English life." — Kirkus Reviews

"Thirkell writes in a charmingly easy and intimate style." — The New York Times

"Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, dislike of fuss, and low-key irony. . . . Light, witty, easygoing books." — The New Yorker