The Rules of Play

“Very original. I loved it.”—Mick Jagger

“This is a little marvel. It’s funny, clever, illuminating, deeply kind-hearted, and doesn’t outstay its welcome. . . . Every word has been chosen with care.”— Guardian

“Written with a beguiling simplicity and . . . small wisdoms. . . . Its clarity and musing tone perfectly suit a rainy afternoon.”— The Daily Telegraph

“A wonderful clear, crisp, precise book.”—BBC Radio 4

Stuck in a rote marriage to a perfectly good man, the narrator finds passion and belonging in the bed of an insurance agent referred to, simply, as “the loss-adjuster.” She has her own losses to deal with: her marriage has gone stale and she’s reeling from the sudden and heart-breaking independence of a teenage stepson.

Set against the backdrop of a five-day cricket match she can’t begin to understand, the narrator examines the choices she’s made, confronting her general bafflement about life and how to live it. This clever little book tackles big questions about love, family, passion, and whether one should always play by the rules.

Jennie Walker is a pseudonym for Faber Faber poet Charles Boyle. He has won the Cholmondeley Award and has been shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Whitbread Prize. The Rules of Play , published in the United Kingdom as 24 for 3 , won the McKitterick Prize. In 2007 he founded his own press, CB Editions.