Before Isabelle I knew nothing of sex.

Before Isabelle I knew nothing of freedom...

Before Isabelle I knew nothing of life.

Paris in the early seventies. Sam - an American student loitering without much intent in the City of Light before the grind of law school - meets, by happenstance, a woman in a bookshop. Isabelle is enigmatic, beautiful, older - and, unlike Sam, experienced in the intimate contradictions of the human heart.. Sam is instantly smitten... but also very aware of the wedding ring on her finger. Noting his infatuation and indecision she tells him: ‘Ask me for my phone number’. He does just that. Days later he pays his first visit to the tiny atelier where Isabelle translates books.., and where there is also a double bed.

Beginning as a classic French arrangement - conducted between five and seven PM a few days a week - Sam soon longs for a life beyond the boundaries imposed by Isabelle on their afternoon liaisons. But what appears to be a limited romantic adventure quietly transforms into a true affair of the heart... and one which lasts for decades to come.

Deeply erotic, Isabelle in the Afternoon is a novel that captures the sensuality of true carnal connection... especially when conducted in a Parisian attic. But it also poses many profound questions about what we seek, what we find, what we settle for - and how love has a very different context when conducted outside of the day-to-day. Passionate and deeply moving, it will have you questioning much about the trajectory of your own intimate life.