Now available from Doubleday Canada; in paperback June, 2018
If each of us is the protagonist of his or her own story, then surely we must all graciously acknowledge that the hero dies in the end. But not at thirty-seven. With two school-aged daughters.
What happens when life and ambition collide with betrayal and disease? Sharon’s comfortable existence as a novelist, wife, and mother to twin daughters is shattered by her husband Al’s affair with a graduate student, and a cancer diagnosis. The only relief in sight is a new writing project – an engrossing serialized novel based on the story of the 19th-century actress Nelly Ternan, the young mistress of the aging Charles Dickens. Chronicling this infamous affair, Sharon is forced to examine with new eyes the secrets and struggles at the heart of domestic life, as she strives to mend her own marriage and heal her body. This surprising and intricate novel shifts between Sharon’s Toronto and Nelly’s Victorian England in interwoven chapters, asking deep questions about what really makes up the story of a relationship and a life.
“Serial Monogamy is gripping and entertaining; Kate Taylor plays an artful game here using two time periods―contemporary and Victorian―to provide the reader with illuminating insight into the way that couples can at times make each other miserable while also making each other happy. The book is a page-turner as well as a clever take on Charles Dickens, his wife, his mistress and the fine art of the serialized novel.” ―Kate Pullinger, award-winning author of Landing Gear