An acid-sharp novella of longing and language, in which the past comes up hard against the present, from Jonathan Gibbs, acclaimed author of Randall.When Jenny Thursley, a 40-year old linguistics lecturer, returns to Europe for a conference in Amsterdam, she finds herself pitched back into the presence of a life she had fled: a once-inspirational mentor now dying, a former lover again within reach, the flickerings of new desire. Over little more than twenty-four hours Jenny must write a keynote conference speech, face up to her own mortality, and to the consequences of the bad choices she has made while finding the nerve to make new choices that might be no better. Witty, sexy and provocative, The Large Door is a meditation on life and living, and on ages golden and otherwise that recalls the sparkling mid-century work of writers such as Muriel Spark and Brigid Brophy.
