When, like her cold and indifferent husband, Lois’ old life vanishes into thin air, she can’t help snatching at the opportunity to come alive. There’s only one fly in the ointment: Janie Gay, the feckless and spiteful mother of her wayward son’s child. But as Lois takes her second – and redeeming – chance at love, she finds herself on a collision course with a society that claims to support and protect. She lays her plans, and suddenly it seems that all those years of nurturing her own deep-frozen heart may not have been so wasted after all…In this, her seventh novel, Anne Fine offers a deeply chilling portrayal of what can happen when the remorseless convictions of society clash with the impulse of a determined mother.

“…waspish, grimly funny and compulsively readable novel…” – Independent

“Fine is a storyteller of brilliance, and this short tragedy is utterly compelling” – The Times

“As wicked and dangerous as ever, Anne fine is on sparkling form with Fly in the Ointment….deploying both wit and daring, Fine pokes away at the cracks in our moral compass with the sharpest of pens” – Sunday Times