The Only Problem

A Novel

A wealthy academic’s life shatters when his estranged wife becomes the suspected leader of a terrorist organization

Having led a successful, comfortable life, Harvey Gotham retires to the French countryside to pursue bookish obsessions—namely, a long monograph on the Book of Job, the biblical narrative of faith in the face of extraordinary suffering. But Gotham’s intellectual interests soon bleed into his daily life when a series of misfortunes, from a destructive affair to his wife’s involvement with an extremist group, threaten to destroy everything he holds dear.

Hailed by the New York Times as “an extremely sophisticated account of the perils that surround our unsuspecting lives in the world today,”The Only Problem balances Spark’s unique blend of razor-sharp satire and moral introspection in one fast-paced, absorbing novel.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Muriel Spark including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s archive at the National Library of Scotland.