Morality Tale

Morality Tale is a novel about the triangular complications in a modern marriage, and the comedy that flows from them. When the novel's unnamed narrator meets the elusive but exciting Richard (an envelope salesman with a nice layperson's line in Zen philosophies), he offers her a friendly escape from her own daunting domestic life. Burdened by her husband's ongoing negotiations with his angry ex-wife, the strains of looking after two stepchildren, and the lingering ghosts of her own past betrayals, she finds that the idea of listening to another man's stories has a great, if forbidden, appeal.

Told with unwavering honesty and wit, Morality Tale explores what it means to be married a second time around, as well as the crucial marital truth that it is important to look forward, not back—and that change is often the key to staying together.

"It is a sign of a remarkable talent when an author can write with the kind of unflinching honesty that Brownrigg brings to to bear on this precise dissection of a marriage, and still make us laugh. From the rueful, cringing smile to the out and out guffaw, this book is shockingly funny. A tragic delight."
—Ayelet Waldman

"In this slim, devastating novel, the marvelously talented Sylvia Brownrigg tells us more about the emotional politics of modern marriage—and divorce—than I can remember reading in a long time. It’s a bulletin from the front lines: timely, true, and at its heart surprisingly tender."
—Ann Packer