Fran may be old but she's not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives around the country for her job with a housing charity and lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. And as each of them seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Profound and moving, this novel asks what makes a good life, and a good death. This triumphant novel takes in love, death, sun-drenched islands, Maria Callas, surprise endings - and new beginnings.