Happenstance — Carol Shields

These two unique companion novels tell the stories of Jack and Brenda Bowman during a rare weekend apart in their many years of marriage. Jack is at home coping with domestic crises and two uncouth adolescents while immobilized by self-doubt and questioning his worth as an historian. Brenda, traveling alone for the first time, is in a strange city grappling with an array of emotions and toying with the idea of an affair. Intimate, insightful, and never sentimental, Happenstance is a profound portrait of a marriage and of those differences between the sexes that brings life -- and a sense of isolation -- into the most loving relationships.