Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench

Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense --and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.