Happenstance  (English, Paperback, Jones Melville)

Steve Milton has lost his Mojo. Although, he's not quite certain what that mean, as there is much in contemporary life he finds baffling. After all, he was the one person who did not foresee that after twenty years of marriage his wife had tired of him and taken a younger lover. Humiliated, he flees far from his London home and in desperation takes a temporary job in West Cornwall, where the winter weather and Spartan accommodation do little to dispel his gloom. To compound his misery, he has left behind his teenage daughter Hannah, who was his true soul mate. It is from this depressing base that Steve, in the course of his Cornish year, gradually recovers his appetite for life. All because of a minor traffic accident; the Happenstance, which involves Steve in the lives of two people very far from what they seem. One, a painter and decorator and former Rugby legend with strong views on the inequalities of Cornish life, the other a beautiful and intelligent Romanian guest worker. But as they say - once burned, twice shy. By turns funny, thoughtful and moving, Happenstance is Cornwall as it really is.