An old man talks: talks of himself, his life, his pain, his hurt. How his son has let him down, why his second wife Nancy is too happy, what is so irresistible about Marisa, his idiotic mistress. Angry, unforgiving, passionate, unrepentant, he explores his life, trying to get a few things off his chest, refusing his childrens world and defending the one that he grew up in and chose – rightly or wrongly – to live to the full. Achingly funny and heartbreaking in equal measure, Desolation is a novel in defence of the life driven by passion.