First edition. ‘America, 1959. With two young children she adores, loving parents back in London, and an admired husband, Charlie, working at the British embassy in Washington, the world seems an effervescent place of parties, jazz and family happiness to Mary van der Linden. But the Eisenhower years are ending, and 1960 brings the presidential battle between two ambitious senators: John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. An American newspaper reporter called Frank Renzo dramatically enters the van der Lindens’ lives, and through him Mary is forced to confront the terror of the Cold War that is the dark background of their carefree existence. In tone and setting, On Green Dolphin Street is a new departure for Faulks, yet readers will recognize the intensely close focus of the characterization, the wide historical perspective in which it is set, and the gathering emotional power of the narrative’ (dustwrapper blurb).

On Green Dolphin Street was Faulks’ sixth novel and, according to the author’s website, more than 600,000 copies have been sold in the UK since it was first published in this edition.