Sudden Rain

A riveting, resonant story that captures perfectly the emotional rhythms of suburban Los Angeles in the 60s and early 70s. Tom and Nedith have been married for thirty years, but their union is rooted firmly in the mores of the 1950s: he works hard as an engineer, she stays home; neither is happy. Meanwhile, their son Pete has recently split from hs wife, Killian, after less than a year of marriage. Their neighbour, Cynny, sees herself as reasonably happy in her marriage to Jim -- until she has an eye-opening conversation with one of her girlfriends, and begins to stray. Cynny's friend Nancy -- who knows she's unhappy in her marriage -- determines to go looking for fulfilment but stumbles into something so unexpected, it may make everyone in the community reconsider the choices they've made. The novel all takes place one stormy L.A. weekend, as a literal fog of unrest blows into town and alters these marriages forever. As a vivid distillation of its time and place, Sudden Rain is a spellbinding achievement and an exciting discovery.

Review: 'That Maritta Wolff was a serious artist is splendidly evident ... It is precisely out of respect for Wolff's patently considerable novelistic abilities that we must acknowledge the faults in SUDDEN RAIN, leaving ourselves free to admire an always compelling work in which so much has unusual liveliness and humanity' LITERARY REVIEW JUNE ISSUE 'A fascinating time-capsule take on living and loving in late Sixties Los Angeles' THE DAILY EXPRESS 'A remarkable book, made poignant by the ironically false hopes throughout' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'A riveting tale of infidelity, love and divorce. Think THE CORRECTIONS meets DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' WOMAN & HOME, July 2005 'The gripping novel charts the impact of divorce and feminism on a group of woman in their 20s, 30s and 40s' YOU magazine, Summer reading special 17/07 'Romantic discontent on a muggy weekend in 1970s LA' FT magazine, recommended summer books 9/7 'The story runs from Thursday to Sunday in 1970s Los Angeles suburbia and microscopically delineates the intersecting relationships of six couples. Wolff brilliantly shows how the rigidity of marriage is distended and misshaped by a seething flux that is only intensified by the solemnity of bourgeois rituals. The novel is dialogue-heavy, but Wolff has an almost magical way of making small talk just significant enough, never dully informative or ponderously overwrought. Wolff's book is a captivating rediscovery of quintessential America' Observer 10/9 'Set in 1972, over one story weekend in LA, five very different couples find they have to face up to problems in their relationships ... Keeping up? It's saga after sage with this romping plot' OK Magazine 18/11