Grenville makes awkward atmospheres & fumbling encounters wonderfully vivid. Read it & cringe The Times The Idea of Perfection is a funny & touching romance between two people whove given up on love. Set in the eccentric little backwater of Karakarook New South Wales pop. 1374 it tells the story of Douglas Cheeseman a gawky engineer with jug-handle ears & Harley Savage a woman altogether too big & too abrupt for comfort. Harley is in Karakarook to foster Heritage & Douglas is there to pull down the quaint old Bent Bridge. From day one theyre on a collison course. But out of this unpromising conjunction of opposites something unexpected happens: sometimes even better than perfection. From these two reticent characters besieged by two lifetimes of regret doubt & dismay Grenville manufactures an extraordinary comedy of manners made all more powerful by her own reticence as a writer Guardian Outrageously entertaining Daily Mail Mined throughout with little pockets of danger & depth Guardian A truly amazing writer Rosie Boycott chair of the Orange Prize jury