<p><b>Winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award</b><br><br><b>Agnes Day ¿ sub-editor, suburbanite, failure extraordinaire ¿ has discovered disconcerting gaps in her general understanding of the world. Terminally middle-class and incurably romantic, Agnes finds herself chronically confused by the most basic interactions. Life and love go on without her, but with a little fa¿e she can pass herself off as a success. Beneath the fiction, however, the burden of truth becomes harder to bear. </b></p>