The Bradshaw Variations

A Novel

The seventh novel by the acclaimed author of the Outline trilogy, Rachel Cusk’s The Bradshaw Variations is a lyrical, subversive tale of a marriage unraveling.

Thomas Bradshaw and Tonie Swann are experiencing the classic symptoms of marriage in its middle years: comfortable house, happy enough daughter, and an eerie sense that life might be happening elsewhere. Then Tonie accepts a big promotion at work and Thomas agrees to become a stay-at-home dad. While Thomas is suddenly faced with the daily silence of an empty house, Tonie finds herself alive to previously unimagined possibilities. And at the head of the family, the aging Bradshaw parents continue their marital dynamic of bickering and petty undermining.

©2021 Rachel Cusk (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Brilliant but tedious

Amazing deep dive into the character’s lives and brilliant writing but the characters are maddeningly dull. For a more moving and succinct depiction of domestic disengagement I like Ghost in This House sung by Alison Krauss