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"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses a moment of experience from which to look ahead..."

Henry Miles, a civil servant, suspects that his wife Sarah is having an affair, and asks his writer friend Maurice Bendrix to contact a private investigator on his behalf. Maurice has a secret, however: he was once Sarah's lover, and is equally keen to find out whether she was... Read Full Overview

Set in London during and just after the Second World War, the novel examines the obsessions, jealousy and discernments within the relationships between three central characters: writer Maurice Bendrix; Sarah Miles; and her husband, civil servant Henry Miles.

"This is a record of hate far more than of love," writes Maurice Bendrix in the opening passages of The End of the Affair , and it is a strange hate indeed that compels him to set down the retrospective account of his adulterous affair with Sarah Miles-a hate bred of a passion... Read Full Overview

"This is a record of hate far more than of love," writes Maurice Bendrix in the opening passages of The End of the Affair , and it is a strange hate indeed that compels him to set down the retrospective account of his adulterous affair with Sarah Miles-a hate bred of a passion... Read Full Overview

In 1946 London, a city scarred by the war, Maurice Bendrix meets by chance with the diplomat Henry Miles. Maurice had had an affair with Henry's wife, Sarah, but that was in the past. Until he is told that Henry suspects she is being unfaithful to him. Driven by curiosity and... Read Full Overview