Casting Off: Complete & Unabridged (Cazalet Chronicle) Book

The excitement of VE day has come and gone, and England remains locked in the drab grip of privation. Polly and Clary Cazalet, now twenty and sharing a peculiar London flat, question whether life will ever get easier. Their cousin Louise, still miserable in her marriage, tries to work up the courage to abandon her husband. A sudden shock forever alters the relationship between Rachel and her darling Sid. And Rupert's old friend Archie continues to be the recipient of family confidences. Rupert has come home at last from France, to a growing rift between his brothers - Hugh, still mourning Sybil, and Edward, preparing to leave his unsuspecting wife for his longtime mistress. After an awkward, guilt-tinged reunion with his own wife, Zoe, Rupert and his once-pampered bride treat each other with the brittle kindness of strangers, neither one aware of the other's secret tragedy.