Mothering Sunday — Graham Swift

A luminous, intensely moving tale that begins with a secret lovers' assignation in the spring of 1924, then unfolds to reveal the whole of a remarkable life.
           
Twenty-two-year-old Jane Fairchild has worked as a maid at an English country house since she was sixteen. For almost all of those years she has been the clandestine lover to Paul Sheringham, young heir of a neighboring house. The two now meet on an unseasonably warm March day -- Mothering Sunday -- a day that will change Jane's life forever.
           
As the narrative moves back and forth from 1924 to the end of the century, what we know and understand about Jane -- about the way she loves, thinks, feels, sees, remembers -- expands with every vividly captured moment. Her story is one of profound self-discovery, and through her, Graham Swift has created an emotionally soaring, deeply affecting work of fiction.