With her husband descending into the advanced stages of dementia, Vivian discovers that reading from his favourite cookery books can call forth a temporary alleviation and a flash of happiness. But her husband's fading memory compromises her own recollections and brings about disappointments, in both the connections she wants to believe and those she'd rather ignore.

Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collectionThe Lemon Table.

Julian Barnesis the author of twelve novels, includingThe Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and two books of non-fiction,Nothing to be Frightened Ofand theSunday Timesnumber one bestsellerLevels of Life. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.