Carnival

Carnival opens on an October evening in London, where Jenny Raeburn is born to Florence, a young woman already drowning in the weight of domestic disappointment and a marriage to an often-absent husband. Jenny grows into a dancer, a choice that brings her into the glittering, dangerous world of performance and desire. She meets Maurice Avery, a charismatic dilettante who sweeps her into passion, only to abandon her when she refuses to become his mistress. Brokenhearted, Jenny marries Trewhella, a Cornish farmer seeking stability, but when Avery resurfaces, Trewhella's jealousy transforms into something darker and more terrifying. The carnival of the title, that fleeting festival of indulgence before Lent, casts its shadow over every choice Jenny makes, each moment of pleasure presaging an inevitable reckoning. This is a novel about desire and its consequences, about the price women pay for pursuing happiness in a world that demands their surrender.